SIR: Deadline for enumeration phase in Karnataka extended again; draft rolls to be published on August 24

The office of the Chief Electoral Officer in Karnataka announced on Friday that the enumeration phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has been extended until August 17, marking the second extension for this exercise. The draft electoral rolls, initially slated for publication on August 17, will now be released on August 24. Voters will have a period from August 24 to September 23 to file claims and objections, with the final electoral rolls set to be published on October 27.

This extension came in response to civil society groups urging the Election Commission to provide voters with sufficient time to review their classification on the Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead and Others (ASDDO) list, which was published earlier. Additionally, KPCC president B.K. Hariprasad had written to the Karnataka CEO on August 6, requesting a 15-day extension. With this latest extension, voters who have been wrongly included in the ASDDO list now have until August 17 to have their details corrected.

As of 4 p.m. on Friday, only 182 enumeration forms were pending digitisation across the state, primarily from Bengaluru South and Belagavi districts. Furthermore, the proportion of voters categorized under ASDDO has decreased from 20.02% on August 5 to 19.81%, suggesting that many voters had been incorrectly placed in this category.