Drawing a striking international comparison to underscore the strength of India’s electoral participation, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said Assam’s voter turnout in the Assembly election surpassed that of Argentina’s General Election, while also asserting that the State’s electoral roll revision follows a distinct legal framework linked to the Supreme Court-supervised National Register of Citizens (NRC) process. Speaking at the All India Media Conference 2026 at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management in New Delhi, Kumar highlighted Assam’s high voter participation even as the State and the wider Northeast remain gripped by football fervour, with Argentina and Lionel Messi enjoying immense popularity among fans.
Kumar said Assam recorded an impressive 85.91% voter turnout in its Assembly election compared with 77.65% voter turnout in Argentina’s General Election, using the comparison to illustrate the scale of democratic participation in the State.
Responding to questions on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), Kumar clarified that Assam’s electoral roll revision is governed by separate provisions under the Citizenship Act because of the Supreme Court-supervised NRC process. He said the Election Commission of India has undertaken special revision exercises to clean up the electoral rolls while the NRC process moves towards finalisation.
On the ongoing SIR exercise, Kumar said, “Absentee, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate, Foreign, voters are removed.”
He also clarified that both maternal and paternal lineage are equally valid for mapping and verifying names against older Special Intensive Revision (SIR) electoral records and also spoke about the lineage and ECINET.
