Gujarat to Launch e-voting in Up-coming Panchayat Election

Gujarat was the first state in the country to launch e-voting facility in any of its election back in the year 2010. Second time in 2015, the state launched e-voting facility for municipal polls but however, did not get the response they expected.  The state now plans to launch e-voting system in the upcoming Panchayat polls as well.  As of now, the e-voting facility is available only for voters of all the eight municipal corporations in the state. But, District, Taluka and Gram Panchayat voters are not given this facility yet.

E-voting is the facility which the voters are being given to vote online without coming to the polling booth. They need to register themselves in State Election Commission’s website and thereby follow the procedures to vote.

The Minister for Panchayat and Rural Development Mr. Jayanti Kavadia has stated that to understand the possibility to implement e-voting, his department has started to collect information from all across the country as well as from abroad where e-voting facilities are available. Information about feasible internet connectivity has also been collected.

In the recently concluded municipal election, the Gujarat State Election Commission (SEC) introduced e-voting for polling in its six municipal corporations. However, the facility got a mixed response as out of a whopping 95.9 lakh voters, only 806 people preferred to vote online.

But the success of this project depends upon how well the e-voting facility is implemented. Right from checking the network service provider to having good internet connectivity as well as resolving any technical issue, there are lots many factors to be taken care of before such facility is again introduced.

Source: ET