The government on Friday issued four notifications allowing the linking of electoral roll data with Aadhaar, making electoral law gender-neutral for service voters, and enabling young citizens to register as voters four times a year instead of the present one. The notifications are part of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 passed by Parliament late last year. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju took to Twitter to announce that four notifications in this regard have been issued in consultation with the Election Commission. The Union minister shared a chart to say that the notifications will enable the “linking of electoral roll data with the Aadhar ecosystem to curb the menace of multiple enrolments of the same person in different places”.
In making electoral law gender-neutral, An army man’s wife is entitled to be enrolled as a service voter, but a woman army officer’s husband is not, according to provisions in the electoral law. But now it will change. The poll panel had asked the law ministry to replace the term wife’ with spouse’ in the provision in the Representation of the People Act related to service voters. Another provision of the proposed bill will allow the youth to enroll as voters on four different dates every year. As of now, those turning 18 on or before January 1 of every year are only allowed to register as voters. Rijiju said the Election Commission can now requisition any premises for storage of poll-related material and accommodation for security forces and polling personnel. The law minister described it as a “historic step” of the Narendra Modi government to reform the electoral process.
Source – Deccan herald.
Written by AKHILA NAIR @alihka.rian
