Female voter ratio falls across Sikkim after SIR

Gyalshing records sharpest decline; State ratio drops from 983 to 969

 GANGTOK, : According to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of final electoral rolls 2026, the female voter ratio has declined across all six districts of Sikkim, with the State-wide ratio falling from 983 female electors per 1,000 male electors in the draft roll to 969 in the final roll.

“When the final roll was published, the gender ratio was 983 females per 1,000 males. Currently, it has dropped to 969. This indicates that more female voter cards/names were deleted. Our analysis suggests this might be due to women moving after marriage without updating their documents,” said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Raj Kumar Yadav at a press meet held at the Office of the Chief Electoral Office at Baluwakhani here today.

The district-wise data released by the Election department shows that Gyalshing recorded the sharpest decline, with its gender ratio dropping from 965 in the draft roll to 945 in the final roll, a fall of 20 points.

Namchi recorded the second-highest decline, from 987 to 968, while Soreng’s ratio fell from 975 to 960. In Gangtok, the ratio declined from 943 to 933, while Pakyong saw a fall from 1,006 to 996. Mangan recorded a decline from 1,116 to 1,104.

Despite the decline, Mangan continues to have the highest female-to-male voter ratio in the State at 1,104, while Gangtok has the lowest at 933.

According to the district-wise data, the draft roll had 2,14,785 female electors against 2,18,507 male electors. In the final roll, the number of female electors stands at 2,05,931, compared to 2,12,534 male electors.

The number of female electors fell by 8,854, while the number of male electors declined by 5,973 between the draft and final rolls.

The district-wise figures show that Gyalshing has 26,920 female electors in the final roll against 28,477 male electors, while Soreng has 28,063 female and 29,226 male electors.

Namchi has 49,555 female electors against 51,213 male electors, while Gangtok has 48,899 female and 52,403 male electors.

Pakyong has 37,147 female electors compared to 37,313 male electors, whereas Mangan has 15,347 female electors against 13,902 male electors.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Sikkim resulted in the deletion of 54,209 names, reducing the total number of electors in the State from 4,71,018 to 4,18,467.

Of the deleted names, 37,737 were excluded at the draft stage after enumeration forms were not submitted, while 16,485 people were found ineligible under various categories, including death, absence or being untraceable, permanent shifting, duplicate or multiple enrolment and other reasons.

Chief Electoral Officer Raj Kumar Yadav said 1,24,519 notices were issued during the revision exercise. Of these, 72,135 (16.65 per cent) electors could not be mapped, while 52,384 were identified as having logical discrepancies by the Election Commission’s IT system under various categories.

Despite the large number of deletions, only 214 appeals have been received at the district level, while 42 appeals have reached the CEO's office and are currently being processed, he said.

“How well this exercise was executed is reflected in the number of appeals received. If many appeals come in, it implies there were flaws or issues in the exercise. But despite approximately 54,000 deletions, we received only 214 appeals at the district level,” Yadav said.

 “This could be due to two reasons: either our exercise was extremely thorough, or the public is unaware of where to appeal if their name was deleted,” he added.

Yadav said the election authorities had held several press conferences to inform people about the appeal process.

“Even today, I want to inform you that if your name was deleted incorrectly, you don't need to worry. You have a 15-day window, that is, until September 22,” he said.

“Starting today until September 22, you can visit the CEO office or the DC office to file an appeal. Upon receiving your appeal, we will check your documents and, if found sufficient, have you fill out Form 6 and add your name,” Yadav said.

 The 42 appeals received at the CEO level are currently under process, he added.

The first appeal can be filed before the concerned Deputy Commissioner, followed by a second appeal before the CEO. The deadline for filing appeals is September 22.

“If your name was deleted incorrectly, you don't need to worry,” Yadav said, adding that electors can approach the CEO or DC office with supporting documents. If the documents are found sufficient, the elector can fill Form 6 and have their name added to the electoral roll.

The Election department also received 2,052 Form 6 applications from new voters, of which 1,982 were accepted following verification.

The CEO said these included young people who had recently attained the age of 18.

The final roll now has 5,889 electors in the 18-19 age group, while 5,332 electors are aged above 80 years.

The elector-to-population ratio in the final roll stands at 573, meaning 573 out of every 1,000 people are registered electors.

The CEO has appealed to all eligible citizens to verify their names and particulars in the final electoral roll to ensure their details are recorded accurately. Citizens can also check their enrolment status in the SIR Final Roll 2026 by visiting voters.eci.gov.in or by downloading the ECINET app from the Google Playstore or Apple Store and searching with the EPIC number.

Separate QR codes have also been provided for checking the final roll, polling-station-wise lists of deleted names and service voter records.