New Delhi, June 29: The Election Commission has taken up a series of measures to plug loopholes in voters’ lists, following a string of complaints in several cities, including Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai, during the general elections.

“The Commission has decided to prepare electoral rolls with the elector’s photographs printed on them. Between 90 and 99 per cent of voters in Kerala already have their photographs on the rolls,” said deputy election commissioner A.. Jha at a news conference today. Voter identity cards will not be needed once the process of placing photographs on voters’ rolls is complete, he said.

In the last Lok Sabha polls, many voters, including some celebrities, could not cast their votes as their names were missing from the electoral rolls.

The poll panel has also decided to put up voters’ lists in big post offices. “Facilities are being provided for the first time in these post offices for filing claims and objections of voters. The postmen can verify these complaints and the returning officer can then correct the mistakes,” said Jha.

Pilot schemes are being run by the poll panel in Mumbai and Pune to test the efficacy of these measures ahead of the Assembly polls in Maharashtra scheduled to be held later this year. The poll panel has also decided to expand throughout the country the availability of draft electoral rolls to local bodies such as gram panchayats and ward samitis.

Facilities for filing complaints on the Internet are being provided on an experimental basis in Maharashtra. “It will be expanded to all the states if the Maharashtra experiment is successful,” said Jha.

The commission will begin intensive revision of electoral rolls, including a house-to-house survey in the Northeast. In other states there will be a summary revision, which will involve including the names of those who make claims during the notified period.

The poll panel also has to tackle several posers such as checking the expenditure accounts given by candidates in the last elections. “We hope to get the expenditure returns from those candidates who had not filed them yet,” said Jha. The poll panel will issue notices to the defaulters and “those who ignore the notices will be disqualified”, he said.