NEW DELHI, Oct. 19 -- The Election Commission of India (ECI) last week decided to provide political parties with machine-readable draft and final electoral rolls but introduced no new safeguards to address the risks of potential data misuse, which it had cited for years to reject opposition demands, people familiar with the matter said.

In a statement on Thursday, ECI said the electoral registration officer would supply a hard copy and a readable PDF format of the electoral roll of each polling station to every recognised political party after the publication of the draft and final electoral rolls. "For this purpose, readable PDF format shall not have the electors' photographs," the commission said.

Senior ECI officials acknowledged tha...