Raipur, November 20: Imagine, voting while sitting comfortably at home! No long queues or technical snags in electronic voting machines, or intimidation attempts by goons paid for by the local leaders. Seems a bit incredible doesn’t it? Well it seems that this scenario is about to come true in the upcoming Legislative Assembly elections of 2016. Election Commissioner, Om Prakash Rawat, on Thursday, said that e-voting will be introduced soon. Rawat revealed this in a special interview with Hindi newspaper Dainik Bhaskar.
Rawat said that the Central Election Commission has been preparing to introduce the e-voting services in India, with the Group of Ministers keeping a close watch on the process, while a group of technical experts are looking after the technical aspects of it. Rawat also said that the CEC will aim at reducing wastage of paper, by introducing e-postal ballots. He revealed that this will be convenient. as, of the total percentage of postal ballot that are being printed, only 10 to 15 per cent are actually used. The services will be launched in some of the phases of upcoming assembly elections, as pilot launch.
Rawat said that the work of stopping dummy candidates in the elections can only be accomplished with the help of Amendments in the election criteria. If the new system of e voting is put into place, a lot of money that goes into arranging and preparing polling booths, and providing security to them, can be saved. It might also lead to a better voter turnout as people will be able to vote more conveniently and comfortably. Obviously, on the flip side, there will also be those who do not have internet access will be excluded from the process.
Source-India.com
