Publication of electoral rolls in J&K rescheduled for Nov 25

Jammu: The Election Commission of India has set a new deadline of November 25 for the final date for publication of electoral rolls in J&K. It said youngsters attaining the age of 18 years on October 1 or earlier will be eligible to become voters in the Union territory.

Earlier, the poll panel had given a timeline of October 31 for the publication of the finalised electoral rolls in J-K, where the special summary revision is being undertaken after a gap of three years and the first such exercise after the boundaries of assembly seats were redrawn in the delimitation exercise.

According to the rescheduled timeline issued by the Election Commission, an integrated draft electoral roll will be published on September 15. The period for filing claims and objections has been set between September 15 to October 25 followed by disposal of claims and objections on November 10.

Checking of health parameters and obtaining the commission's permission for final publication and updating database and printing of supplements has been fixed for November 19 before the publication of final electoral rolls on November 25, an Election Commission's order, reproduced by the Chief Electoral Officer's office here, said.

In May, Centre had issued a notification stating that the orders of the Delimitation Commission which redrew electoral constituencies and provided six additional assembly seats to Jammu division and one to Kashmir would come into effect from May 20.

According to the orders of the Delimitation Commission, set up under the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act of 2019, the Union territory will have 90 assembly constituencies – 43 in Jammu Division and 47 in Kashmir Valley– with nine of them being reserved for the Scheduled Tribes.