Loksatta Party today expressed disappointment and frustration at the discovery that voter rolls in almost 300 booths were found to be totally wrong. During a visit to the office of the State Election Commissioner, party spokeswoman and leading civic activist Dr Meenakshi Bharath pointed out a few booths for which the data were completely wrong. Although the SEC and the Chief Election Officer quickly moved to fix the glaring errors that were brought to their attention, Dr Meenakshi expressed dismay that up to 1/10th of the voters in Bangalore could have been disenfranchised because the SEC and the CEO's offices did not maintain reliable data on voters.

Blaming the errors partly on the lack of technical skill in these matters within the government, Dr Meenakshi called for the establishment of an independent commission to maintain voter data reliably. Such a commission, she said, should be staffed with skilled people who are knowledgeable about managing large data files, and can also facilitate easy voter enrolment by the citizens. "Voting is the heart of our democratic expressions," she said, and "it is absolutely vital that it should be an easy, effective, and efficient process. This can only happen when voters are able to register themselves easily to vote, and also be confident that their data will be maintained reliably by the authorities."

Loksatta has been a pioneer in electoral reforms, calling for directly elected mayors for all cities, elected ward committees in each ward, voter registration counters at post offices, and many other steps needed to restore public confidence in the electoral system. In the past, the party has campaigned successfully for disclosure of assets by candidates, and was also an active partner in the enactment of the Right to Information Act, 2005, which has greatly assisted citizens in their efforts to hold their governments accountable.

Dr Meenakshi asked the SEC and CEO to work swiftly to fix the errors in the 290+ other booths also, and offered the help of citizens like herself in checking through the data to bring errors to the attention of the authorities.