Ahead of the 2022 state elections, the Center has planned three major voting reforms. details here

However, this will be done voluntarily and will allow up to four attempts of registration in the electoral roll. In addition, from January 2022 for the first time 18-year-old voters will get a chance to register four times a year with four different cut-off dates. Election Commission of India (ECI) was pushing for multiple cut-off dates to allow more eligible people to register as voters.

At present, for an election to be held in a particular year, only a person is eligible to be enrolled in the electoral roll who has attained the age of 18 years on or before 1st January of that year.

The Election Commission had told the government that the cut-off date of January 1 set for the purpose debars many youths from participating in the election exercise conducted in a particular year. A person who has attained the age of 18 years on January 2 cannot be registered, because of only one qualification or cut-off date. Therefore, a person who turns 18 after January 1, will have to wait for the next year to register.

The Law Ministry had recently told a parliamentary panel that “it is proposed to amend section 14(b) of the Representation of the People Act to include four qualifying dates (or cut-off dates) – January 1, April 1, 1 July, and 1 October – every year”.

In March, the then Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the Lok Sabha in a written reply that the Election Commission had proposed linking electoral rolls with the “Aadhaar ecosystem”, so as to “prevent the menace of multiple nominations of the same person”. For “location” at different places.

In August 2015, a Supreme Court order on Aadhaar put the brakes on the Election Commission’s project linking UIDAI (Aadhaar) number with electoral data of voters for checking multiple entries in the electoral roll.

The poll panel was then collecting Aadhaar numbers as part of its National Electoral Roll Correction and Authentication Program (NERPAP).

The Election Commission is also pressuring the government to amend provisions of the Representation of the People Act to allow the Election Commission to collect Aadhaar numbers of those who have applied to become voters and are already part of the electoral rolls. In addition, the electoral law for service voters would also be made “gender neutral”.

According to the provisions of the Electoral Act, the wife of an army soldier is entitled to be enrolled as a service voter, but the husband of a female military officer is not.

The Election Commission had asked the Law Ministry to replace the word ‘wife’ with ‘husband’ in the provisions of the Representation of the People Act relating to service voters.