Shillong: The Meghalaya Congress has urged the state election authorities to grant traditional dorbar shnongs a stronger role in voter registration, arguing that local institutions can play a vital part in preventing ineligible names from entering the electoral rolls.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Meghalaya Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) secretary Manuel Badwar said that during a recent meeting on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the party pressed the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to formally empower dorbar shnongs in the registration process.
“Since Meghalaya does not follow the Panchayati Raj system, the dorbar shnongs are the closest form of grassroots governance. Giving them a greater role in voter verification will help maintain the integrity of the rolls,” Badwar said.
He added that other political parties attending the meeting also supported the proposal.
According to Badwar, the CEO assured the delegation that the suggestion would be taken up seriously to strengthen the role of local authorities in screening voter applications.
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Badwar argued that such measures are necessary to stop “infiltration” of ineligible voters and to ensure that only genuine residents are included in the state’s electoral list.
He also pointed to a broader issue of voter mobility across states, claiming that some individuals exploit loopholes in the system to appear on multiple electoral rolls.
“As Rahul Gandhi mentioned during his campaign, people can vote in Delhi today, then in Bihar or Karnataka within months. This manipulation, often aided by money power, threatens the fairness of elections,” he said.
The Congress maintained that empowering the dorbar shnongs would create a more transparent and accountable system of voter registration in Meghalaya, strengthening public confidence in the democratic process.
