The introduction of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), online voting and online submission of nominations were among the various subjects discussed during the two-day 27th National Conference of State Election Commissions (SECs) attended by 19 Commissioners in Mysuru.
In an interview with The Hindu, State Election Commisisoner P.N. Srinivasachari said the SEC’s priority was to hold elections to gram panchayats through EVMs before attempting online voting or online submission of nominations.
Is Karnataka close to introducing online voting or online submission of nominations during the elections to the local bodies like other States?
Right now our priority is to hold elections to the gram panchayats through EVMs. Already elections to taluk and zilla panchayats and municipalities are held through EVMs. But, GPs are multi-member constituencies. So, we have to first focus on procuring the required number of multi-post EVMs, which facilitate the voter to vote in favour of multiple candidates.
How will this be done, given the technical issues?
Normally, we borrow EVMs from the Election Commission of India (ECI) for polls to local bodies. But, they don’t have multi-post EVMs for GP elections. However, Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL) have now started manufacturing EVMs facilitating multiple choices.
Karnataka already tried EVMs in the last GP elections in Bidar by borrowing 1,200 such multi-post EVMs. But, to hold GP elections across the State through EVMs, we may need up to 50,000 such multi-post EVMs. We will not be able to buy all of them in view of the budgetary constraints. Three to four states can together buy the multi-post EVMs, loan and borrow them when needed as simultaneous elections will generally not be held in States.
What about online voting that was tried in Gujarat in 2015?
The issue was discussed in the last conference, but Karnataka backed out because of various reasons including the possibility of impersonation, bogus voting and other electoral malpractices.
The system is not fool-proof. After registration, the voter receives an OTP on their mobile with which votes are cast. There is a possibility of the phone and EPIC card being handed over to an unauthorized person. The system does not verify the voter through biometrics. Until software is developed to authenticate the biometrics, there will be lacunae in the system.
In Gujarat, about 20,000 voters registered and 6,000 voted online. But, throughout the day, they had to handle a lot of queries, which is burdensome.
Any legal complications?
We need an amendment to the concerned Act to introduce online voting. It is not within the powers of SEC. All our powers are subject to legislations made thereof. Even when EVMs were introduced, amendments were made. Ultimately though, we have to move towards giving voters an online option.
What about online submission of nominations to local body elections?
We hold elections to more than one lakh posts during the local body polls that receive more than 10 lakh nominations. This is a huge amount of data. We need computer infrastructure that can handle such volumes. However, we cannot do away with the option of physical filing. We have to give the candidates the option of filing nominations physically also.
