Election Commission Suspends Two Officers Over Pilibhit Voter List Fraud

The Election Commission of India has ordered the immediate suspension of two electoral registration officers in Uttar Pradesh's Pilibhit Assembly constituency following allegations of large-scale electoral roll manipulation.

Action And FIR

In a letter sent to the Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer on October 31, the poll body directed that Mayank Goswami and Hemant Chaudhary be suspended from duty. Their charge sheets must be submitted to the Commission for scrutiny, and they cannot be reinstated without prior approval from the poll authority. The Commission also directed that Section 198 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, be added to the existing police case against the two officers and Anil Kumar, a computer operator at a voter registration centre.

Fraud Details

According to an investigation by The Reporters' Collective, thousands of voters in Pilibhit had their names and relatives' names deleted and replaced with fake identities after the Special Intensive Revision ended, while their voter identity numbers stayed the same. The state's chief electoral officer acknowledged on October 22 that voters had been removed without formal applications. The Collective verified the addition of 2,691 fake voters across 55 booths, and found that 2,638 of them remained on the voter roll eight days after the CEO's admission. The fraud happened during the regular yearly updation of the voter roll. The investigation found that officers could make changes without informing voters or uploading documentary evidence, and that the ECINET software did not require a mandatory record of changes or public disclosure of the basis for alterations. Before the suspensions, Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa had directed district election officers to deactivate ECINET portal IDs of computer assistants across the state due to login misuse complaints in Pilibhit.

Context

Electoral rolls form the foundation of democratic elections, determining who is legally eligible to cast a ballot in any given constituency. Voter registration databases are managed by local officials under the oversight of the Election Commission of India to ensure lists remain accurate and up-to-date. Investigations into procedural flaws and software vulnerabilities highlight the administrative challenges involved in maintaining millions of voter records securely across the country.