Panaji: Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday assured the state legislature that he would approach the Election Commission of India (ECI) to seek an extension of the deadline for filing appeals against voter name deletions carried out during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state. His statement came amid mounting opposition criticism and widespread allegations that the revision exercise has led to large-scale and arbitrary exclusion of genuine voters.

Addressing the Goa Legislative Assembly, Sawant said the government’s intention behind the SIR exercise was clear and rooted in the principle of “one citizen, one vote.” He stressed that the process was not meant to disenfranchise legitimate voters, particularly native Goans, and acknowledged the concerns raised by legislators regarding errors in the draft electoral rolls.

“I want to assure that no original Goan will see his name deleted,” the chief minister said. “The government’s intention is clear that a person should be enrolled at only one place. I will request the Election Commission to extend the time period to appeal notices and voter name deletions.”

The assurance comes at a time when the SIR exercise in Goa has triggered significant political and public controversy. Opposition leaders have described the revision as a “mass exclusion exercise,” alleging that thousands of eligible voters have been wrongly marked as dead, permanently shifted, duplicate, or untraceable, often without adequate notice or due process.

According to official figures presented by Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Goel, the SIR has resulted in the identification and removal of 100,042 names from the draft electoral roll. This represents a deletion rate of 8.44% from the initial electorate of 1,185,034 voters. Enumeration forms were collected from 1,084,992 electors, amounting to a coverage of 91.56%.

The draft roll data shows that 25,574 electors were flagged as deceased, 72,471 as shifted or absent, and 1,997 as enrolled at multiple locations. While election authorities have defended the exercise as a routine and legally mandated effort to clean up electoral rolls, opposition leaders argue that the manner in which it has been carried out raises serious questions about fairness, legality, and administrative competence.

Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao and Congress legislator advocate Carlos Alvares Ferreira strongly criticised the process in the Assembly, alleging that voters were being marked for deletion primarily because enumeration forms were not collected, rather than due to verified ineligibility.

Alemao argued that the non-collection of enumeration forms cannot, by itself, be treated as evidence that a voter is dead, has shifted permanently, is duplicate, or is otherwise ineligible. “Non-collection of a form cannot legally mean that the voter has shifted, the voter is dead, the voter is duplicate, or the voter is ineligible,” he said. “This approach equates absence with disqualification, which is neither fair nor lawful.”

He also highlighted the specific circumstances of many Goan voters, pointing out that a large number of students pursue education outside the state and many working professionals, particularly from Goa, are employed abroad. According to Alemao, such voters may be temporarily absent during enumeration but continue to remain legitimate electors with a constitutional right to vote.

“When voters see their names missing from the draft roll without any prior mandatory notice, trust in the electoral system is shaken,” Alemao said. “Mass deletion based on non-collection of forms is procedurally flawed.”

Carlos Alvares Ferreira echoed these concerns and presented detailed examples from his own constituency to illustrate what he described as the alarming scale of the problem. He said that in at least one booth in his constituency, more than 90% of voters were either marked as “unmapped” or deleted on grounds such as being dead, permanently shifted, duplicate, or for not submitting forms.

“I have got 159 names in part number 20 of the Aldona constituency marked as dead, untraceable, etc.,” Ferreira told the House. He cited specific individuals, including well-known and active residents of the village, whose names were flagged as untraceable or absent despite their continued presence in the area.

“There is Nita Shripad Thali, Sikandar Shripad Thali—he’s a lawyer, my colleague, he goes to court, he’s practising—a very well-known, very well-respected family in the village. Vidyasagar Thali—all have been marked as untraceable and absent. They have not gone for a holiday; they are all here. Glenn Thomas Gomes, Godfrey Thomas Gomes—just knocked off the list by saying they are untraceable. Very much active in the village. Everyone knows them. How does the Booth Level Officer not know them? What kind of work is he doing?” Ferreira asked.

He further pointed out that in the same booth, out of 434 voters listed in the draft roll, 150 were marked as absent or dead and 365 as not mapped. “If 365 are removed, we will have only 65 voters remaining on the roll in that booth,” he said, warning that such drastic reductions could fundamentally distort democratic representation.

Goa is among the states where the Election Commission is conducting a Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, a process intended to comprehensively verify voter lists. The previous SIR in Goa was held in 2002. Under the current exercise, voters who are unable to trace their names, or the names of their parents or relatives, in the 2002 SIR list are categorised as “unmapped.” Such voters are issued notices asking them to provide documents related to citizenship.

This aspect of the exercise has drawn particular criticism, especially after reports emerged that prominent individuals were issued notices under the “unmapped” category. Former Navy captain and Congress South Goa MP Viriato Fernandes, as well as former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash, were among those asked to appear with documents after being flagged as unmapped voters.

Election Commission officials have stated that such notices are system-generated and part of a standard verification process, but opposition leaders argue that issuing citizenship-related notices to well-known public figures underscores deeper flaws in the implementation of the SIR.

Responding to the criticism, Chief Minister Sawant reiterated that the objective of the SIR was not exclusion but accuracy. “The intention of the SIR is clear,” he said. “It has to be about one citizen, one vote.” He maintained that genuine voters would be protected and that procedural safeguards, including the appeal process, were available to those affected.

By seeking an extension of the appeal deadline, the state government appears to be acknowledging that more time may be needed for voters to respond to notices, correct errors, and restore their names to the electoral rolls. Whether this move will be sufficient to address the broader concerns raised by the opposition and civil society remains to be seen, but the controversy has already cast a spotlight on the challenges of balancing electoral integrity with inclusivity in a diverse and mobile society like Goa.