Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Dec 29: The Election Commission of India (ECI) arranged an all-party meeting on January 16 to show off the technology created to solve poor voter turnout and solicit input. The prototype has been developed to enable remote voting for migratory workers and students.
“ECI invited all political parties on 16.01.2023 to demonstrate functioning of the Multi-Constituency RVM. Based on feedback from various stakeholders and demonstration of the prototype, Commission will appropriately carry forward process of implementing the remote voting method,” said ECI.
The ECI stated in a statement on Thursday that it had looked into the possibility of modifying the tried-and-true M3 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) type to allow voting at polling places outside of migrants’ home constituencies.
“The migrant voter would thus need not travel back to his/her home district to exercise his/her franchise of voting,” it said.
Election Commission of India (ECI) develops prototype Multi-Constituency Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM) which can handle multiple constituencies from a single remote polling booth. So, migrant voters need not travel back to their home states to vote: ECI pic.twitter.com/KixvzEEzmq
— ANI (@ANI) December 29, 2022
For the demonstration, the ECI has invited delegates from 57 state political parties and eight nationally recognised political parties.
Rajiv Kumar, the chief election commissioner, explained that the goal was to address the three main reasons for poor voter turnout: urbanisation, young disinterest, and immigrant voters’ ineligibility. The ECI declared that it was prepared to test multiple constituency remote voting among domestic migrants from their homes.
Political parties have been invited by the ECI to submit their opinions by January 31 on matters pertaining to legislative modifications needed and operational requirements for remote voting.
A four-person group of experts from the Indian Institutes of Technology and the National Informatics Centre was assembled by the ECI in 2020 to evaluate the technology needed to support remote voting. The panel discussed a concept plan for the use of technology in election administration.
