Election Commission to take final call on pan-India SIR rollout: CEC
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Monday said work is in progress to launch Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in all states and a final decision on its rollout will be taken by the Election Commission.
Responding to a question at a press conference to announce the Bihar assembly polls, CEC Kumar said the EC had announced its plan for a pan-India SIR while rolling out Bihar SIR on June 24.
The work is on and the three commissioners will meet to decide on dates for various states to launch their respective SIRs, he said.
The poll authority had asked its state poll officers to be ready for the voter list cleanup exercise by September 30.
According to officials, the EC top brass had asked the state chief electoral officers (CEOs) at a conference here earlier this month to be ready for SIR rollout in the next 10 to 15 days. But for the sake of greater clarity, September 30 deadline was set for them to be ready for the electoral roll cleanup exercise.
The CEOs have been told to keep ready the electoral rolls of their states published after the last SIR.
Several CEOs have already put the voter list published after their last SIR on their websites.
The website of the Delhi CEO has the 2008 voter list when the last intensive revision took place in the national capital. In Uttarakhand, the last SIR took place in 2006, and that year's electoral roll is now on the state CEO website.
The last SIR in states will serve as the cut-off date, just as the 2003 voter list of Bihar is being used by the EC for intensive revision. Most states had the last SIR of the voter list between 2002 and 2004. Most of the states have nearly completed mapping of current electors with the voters according to the last SIR in the state or Union Territory (UT).
Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal are due in 2026. The primary aim of the SIR is to weed out foreign illegal migrants by checking their place of birth.
The move assumes significance in the wake of a crackdown in various states on illegal foreign migrants, including from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
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Lebanon appoints new representative for talks with Israel, rejects linkage to Iran
Beirut: Lebanon’s has moved to underline its independent position in ongoing regional developments, amid attempts to link the country to the broader conflict involving Iran, the United States and Israel.
President Joseph Aoun, while announcing the appointment of former US ambassador Simon Karam as Lebanon’s representative in talks with Israel, made it clear that Karam would be the sole representative for Lebanon and that there would be no substitute.
The move comes in response to what the Lebanese officials see as efforts by Iran to tie Lebanon’s situation to the wider regional conflict. Iran had indicated that there would be no ceasefire involving the US, Israel and Iran unless it also included a ceasefire in Lebanon.
Some groups, including Hezbollah and its supporters, had expressed support for linking the situations, citing concerns that the Lebanese government has limited leverage in negotiations with Israel. Lebanon is not formally a party to the conflict, and its army is considered weak.
However, others, including Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, have opposed this approach. They view Iran’s stance as an attempt to influence Lebanon’s internal affairs and see it as undermining the country’s sovereignty.
Officials backing the government’s position say the move is aimed at reaffirming Lebanon’s sovereignty and ensuring that decisions about peace and ceasefire within the country are not dictated externally.
They also see it as a safeguard, so that any breakdown in talks between the US, Israel and Iran does not automatically lead to renewed conflict in Lebanon.
