Meghalaya gears up for electoral roll revision ahead of 2025

The Election Commission of India has announced plans for a Special Summary Revision of Photo Electoral Rolls, with January 1, 2025, as the qualifying date. This process aims to update voter lists across India, including Meghalaya's twelve districts.

Data from October 8, reveals varying levels of progress in Meghalaya's house-to-house verification efforts. North Garo Hills leads with a 100.11% verification rate, while East Jaintia Hills trails at 94.29%. The state average stands at 97.20%, with 2,179,106 electors verified out of a total of 2,241,984.

The revision process has identified 23,161 expired voters and 1,354 duplicate entries across Meghalaya. East Khasi Hills, the most populous district, reported the highest number of expired voters at 7,822, while West Khasi Hills noted the most duplicates at 365.

Key dates for the revision include:

• August 20 to October 18, 2024: House-to-house verification and polling station rationalisation
• October 29, 2024: Publication of integrated draft electoral roll
• October 29 to November 28, 2024: Period for filing claims and objections
• January 6, 2025: Final publication of electoral roll

The Election Commission emphasises the importance of pre-revision activities, giving them equal weight to the revision process itself. These activities include removing discrepancies and improving photograph quality in existing records.

As part of the process, the Chief Electoral Officer met with political parties on October 8. Regular meetings are scheduled to continue until the final electoral rolls are published.