Majority back 'immediate' nationwide rollout of Bihar-like SIR despite questions on transparency: Survey

More women were likely to support the immediate nationwide implementation of a Bihar-like SIR exercise than women, the survey found. (File: PTI)

There is strong support for an immediate nationwide implementation of a Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls on the lines of the exercise being undertaken by the Election Commission of India in Bihar despite a sharp division in opinion on the transparency of the process and issues with the one-month objection period provided by the poll panel, a new survey has found.

As per the findings of the Weekly Vote Vibe survey on Bihar SIR, as many as 49.2 percent of the respondents support an immediate nationwide implementation of the exercise while a relatively lower 39.1 percent prefer tightening existing Summary Revision norms instead.

While 42.2 percent of the respondents said they did not face any problems in adding or removing their names from the voter lists (against 37.2 percent who said they did), the opinion was sharply divided on the transparency of the SIR exercise.

As many as 39.9 percent of the respondents said they believed SIR was being conducted properly while 39.8 percent showed lower trust in the process, the survey found.

Trust in the SIR process increased with age, it said, adding that only 32.2 percent of the respondents in the 18-24 years age group believed the process was proper as compared to 56.6 percent of those aged above 55 years.

Overall, men (43%) placed a higher degree of trust in the Bihar SIR as compared to women (36.2%). Yet, as per the survey, more women were likely to support the immediate nationwide implementation of SIR than women with the numbers stacked 50.7 percent to 47.9 percent, respectively.

Among other findings, the survey reveals that 40.9 percent of the respondents felt that the one-month period provided by the Election Commission for voters to submit their grievances regarding the draft electoral roll as inadequate as compared to 38.3 percent who thought the timeframe was adequate.

Additionally, 74.7 percent of the respondents said they have the documents required to be submitted for the SIR process while only 11.8 percent said they had none of the 11 documents mandated by the ECI, the survey said.