Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji

Panaji, Feb 21: The Election Commission of India has released Goa’s final electoral roll, confirming 10,57,566 registered voters in the state following the completion of a Special Intensive Revision exercise aimed at refining and authenticating the voter database ahead of forthcoming elections.

Before the draft roll was issued, the state had 11,85,034 enrolled voters, including 5,73,853 men and 6,11,168 women. As part of the revision drive, booth-level officers circulated enumeration forms to the entire electorate. Of these, 10,84,992 forms were returned, reflecting a response rate of 91.56 per cent.

The scrutiny process resulted in the deletion of 1,00,042 names due to reasons such as death, relocation, or duplication. Officials said 25,574 voters were removed after being confirmed deceased, 29,729 were found to be untraceable, and around 40,000 had migrated to other areas.

The draft roll published on December 16 last year recorded 10,84,992 voters, comprising approximately 5.23 lakh men, 5.61 lakh women, and nine third-gender electors. During technical verification, nearly 83.19 per cent — about 9 lakh voters — were successfully linked with parental or personal electoral data. However, the ECINET system flagged logical inconsistencies in nearly 59,000 cases, which were subsequently corrected under designated categories.

Authorities stated that the updated and finalised electoral roll has been made available at all polling stations and can also be inspected at the offices of Electoral Registration Officers and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers from Saturday onward.

In the last Assembly polls held in 2022, the Bharatiya Janata Party secured 20 of the 40 seats, retaining power with additional backing from smaller parties and Independents. The Indian National Congress emerged as the principal opposition but did not manage to form the government. During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the state’s two parliamentary seats were evenly divided between the BJP and the Congress, underlining a closely contested political landscape in Goa.