GUWAHATI: In Assam, people whose names have been excluded in the updated (NRC) National Register of Citizens will be able to vote in the upcoming Assam Assembly Elections 2021, said the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday here.
Addressing the media, chief election commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said that those whose names were included in the voters’ list would be eligible to cast their votes in the upcoming state polls.
Arora on Wednesday cited a Union home ministry notification and said that the exclusion of a person’s name from NRC does not amount to her declaration as a foreigner.
“By implication, such persons remain on the voters’ list and shall be eligible to vote until a decision is taken by concerned tribunals about their citizenship,” he said.
Around 1.9 million people were left out of the updated NRC published on August 31, 2019, as part of a process to identify undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh. Those who entered Assam before March 25, 1971, the day before Bangladesh was liberated from Pakistan, and have valid documents to prove it been included in the NRC.
A team of ECI on Wednesday concluded its three-day visit to Assam to examine poll preparedness in the state.
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