NEW DELHI, Dec 29: In a major move to increase voter participation, the Election Commission today said it has developed a prototype of a Remote Electronic Voting Machine (REVM) for domestic migrant voters and has invited political parties for a demonstration on January 16.
If implemented after stakeholder consultations, migrant voters do not need to travel to their home district to exercise their franchise.
Terming counting of votes cast at remote booths and their transmission to the returning officer in other states as a “technological challenge”, Election Commission officials said RVMs will be developed as “a robust, failproof and efficient stand-alone system” based on existing electronic voting machines and will not be connected to the internet.
Based on feedback from various stakeholders and the demonstration of the prototype, the EC will appropriately carry forward the process of implementing remote voting, according to a statement.
The poll panel has also floated a concept note on remote voting and sought the views of political parties on the legal, administrative and technological challenges in implementing it.
The multi-constituency remote EVM, developed by a public sector undertaking, can handle up to 72 constituencies from a single remote polling booth, the statement issued by the poll watchdog said.
“After focus on youth and urban apathy, remote voting will be a transformational initiative for strengthening participation in electoral democracy,” Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said.
With the objective of finding a technological solution that is credible, accessible and acceptable to all stakeholders, the commission headed by CEC Kumar along with election commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel “has now 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 — polling stations outside home constituency, for domestic migrants,” the statement said.
The initiative, if implemented, can lead to a “social transformation” for migrants, it said.
“Many a times migrants 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 an electoral roll of their home or native constituencies as they have permanent residence or property,” the poll panel said.
Elaborating on the concept note, the EC said it has invited all eight recognised national and 57 state political parties on January 16 to demonstrate the functioning of the multi-constituency prototype RVM. Members of the commission’s Technical Expert Committee will also be present. (PTI)
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