Election Commission develops EVM prototype for migrants; Oppn raises concerns
The poll watchdog said it has called all parties for a demonstration on January 16, even as opposition leaders expressed some concerns over how reliable the new system would be.
New Delhi: The Election Commission on India (ECI) on Thursday said it has developed a prototype of a multi-constituency remote electronic voting machine (RVM) for domestic migrants, a potentially landmark development that can boost voter participation and eliminate problems of travelling to home districts during polls for voting.
The poll watchdog said it has called all parties for a demonstration on January 16, even as opposition leaders expressed some concerns over how reliable the new system would be.
Currently, a voter has to physically travel to the district where they are a registered voter in order to cast their vote, but if the new initiative is implemented, migrant voters will not be required to travel to their home district to exercise their franchise and will be able to use a remote electronic voting machine (EVM) instead.
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In a statement, ECI said it “explored the option of using a modified version of the time-tested model of M3 (Mark 3) EVMs to enable voting at remote polling stations i.e. polling stations outside home constituency, for domestic migrants”.
“The migrant voter would thus need not travel back to his/her home district to exercise his/her franchise of voting,” the statement added.
The commission — comprising chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar and election commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel — invited eight recognised national parties and 57 regional parties on January 16 for a demonstration and feedback.
“The initiative, if implemented, can lead to a social transformation for the migrants and connect with their roots as many times they are reluctant to get themselves enrolled at their place of work for various reasons such as frequently changing residences, not enough social and emotional connect with the issues of area of migration, unwillingness to get their name deleted in electoral roll of their home/native constituencies as they have permanent residence/property,” the statement said.
Kumar said the idea was to address the causes behind low voter turnouts such as urban and youth apathy, and remote voting. “The commission has already begun programmes to address urban and youth apathy. This (prototype) will now target domestic migrants,” he said.
The commission, in association with a renowned public sector undertaking, is now ready to pilot a “multi-constituency remote EVM for facilitating participation of domestic migrants from their remote locations itself, i.e., the places of their current residence for purposes of education/employment, etc., for voting for their home constituencies”, the statement said.
This modified EVM can handle up to 72 constituencies from a single remote polling booth, likely to be called a state polling booth. The voting will happen over standalone EVMs, same as the ones used during elections, said an official familiar with the matter.
Explaining the operations, an ECI official said the pilot will be confined to constituencies within the same state. “Say an election is happening in Himachal, we will initially set up a state booth in Shimla for migrant voters (those belonging to other districts). Since there are 68 constituencies in Himachal, one machine is sufficient. In a bigger state like Uttar Pradesh, there will be multiple machines,” the official said, seeking anonymity.
“Depending on the number of voters who register for a particular election, the state booths will be set up. The commission will inform the voters which state booth they can vote from, and simultaneously bar the voter from casting the ballot from their constituency,” the official added.
The commission has sought the written views of recognised political parties by January 31 on various issues such as changes required in legislation, changes in administrative procedures and voting method/RVM/technology, if any other, for the domestic migrants.
“Based on the feedback received from various stakeholders and demonstration of the prototype, the commission will appropriately carry forward the process of implementing remote voting method,” the statement said.
The opposition Congress has expressed apprehension over the EC’s new prototype of multi-constituency RVM and instead asked the poll panel to “restore trust in the electoral system with transparency and via honest engagement with the Opposition.”
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In a statement, Congress general secretary for communications Jairam Ramesh referred to the “suspicious” voting numbers in the recent assembly elections and said, “In Gujarat this time we also saw suspicious voting numbers which showed that 10-12% of voters cast their votes in the last hour of voting. This translates into an impossible 25-30 seconds being taken to cast each vote. You need a minimum of 60 seconds to cast a vote.”
“Now imagine if these suspicious patterns can be extended via a multi-constituency voting machine to other locations. This would seriously undermine trust in the system,” said the Congress leader. “On issue after issue our representations to the Election Commission result in no action.”
“Unfortunately, fears of their (EVM) misuse have not been systematically addressed. Voters and parties must have confidence in the electoral system...,” he added.
Former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi said it is a welcome move as long as the implementation is democratic exercise.
“They have called all stakeholders, including political parties, for a demonstration and sought their feedback. Addressing migrants’ issues is a great idea. However, when EVM itself is still contested, I don’t know how this will be received. I hope they take into account everyone’s views,” he said.
