The draft voters’ list for the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) elections was published on Thursday, leaving many sitting corporators to ponder over the wide difference between the population of the area and the number of voters. They are planning to submit objections.
The draft voters list has been announced as per the order of the state election commission. The civic election is expected to be held by October 2022. However, a final schedule has not yet been published.
There are a total of 121 wards under the NMMC and these wards have been distributed in 41 panels. While each panel consists of 3 wards, panel number 41 will have only two wards.
Vaibhaw Gaikwad, a former corporator says that panel number 28 has a 25,435 population. However, the number of voters is around 16101, which is around 60% of the total population. “These voters will further be divided in three wards. This means that the number of voters will come down from what these wards had in the previous election,” said Gaikwad.
Similarly, panel number 27 has a 27,575 population and the number of voters is 22,383.
According to former corporators, over the period, the number of voters has increased due to awareness among citizens. “While preparing the voter list, the population is taken from the 2011 census, even after adding new voters over the years, the difference between population and voters is quite wide,” said a candidate from NCP. He added that they will submit objections.
An official from NMMC Election Department says “The objections and suggestions have to be submitted in a specified format to the election department at NMMC headquarters or the respective ward offices in the nodes from June 23 to July 1, 2022.”
He said, “The ward-wise voters’ lists have been displayed at the NMMC headquarters and also at the respective ward offices. It is also available on the civic website www.nmmc.gov.in.”
