Will address duplicate voter ID numbers soon: ECI

The Election Commission of India on Friday announced plans to replace all duplicate Elector Photo Identity Card numbers with unique identifiers within the next three months, but reiterated that the duplication of the numbers did not mean there were fake voters. The commission said it had carried out a “sample enquiry” of over 100 electors and found that those with duplicate EPIC numbers were genuine electors. “The Commission has now decided to resolve this long pending issue after detailed discussions within the technical teams and concerned CEOs in the next three months by ensuring a unique national EPIC number to the existing electors having a duplicate EPIC number and for future electors as well,” the poll body said in a statement. In a letter dated August 7, 2024, the ECI identified five types of “EPIC discrepancies”: multiple EPIC numbers issued to the same elector, multiple electors with the same EPIC number, states using identical alpha-numeric systems, EPICs containing more than 10 digits, and electors who haven’t been issued EPICs. Will the ECI finally uphold democracy or continue to serve as @BJP4India’s puppet?” Earlier, the ECI had attributed the duplication to “decentralised and manual mechanism” with “identical alphanumeric series” being used by different states before electoral roll databases were migrated to the “ERONET platform.” The person quoted above added that the ECI is now addressing the matter on “mission mode” and has ordered all states to conduct physical verification before removing duplicate EPIC numbers.