Gujarat to introduce e-voting in civic polls

Ahmedabad, May 17: Gujarat is all set to become the first state in India introduce online voting in the civic polls.

The government and the State Election Commission (SEC) have decided to introduce e-voting in the next local body elections.

"This will be for the first time in the country that in any official election the method of online voting via internet will be used, beginning with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation polls scheduled in mid-October followed by Rajkot, Vadodara, Surat, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar local body elections," SEC secretary, P H Shah said.

"A task force has been formed to cover all the aspects of e-voting headed by state election commissioner K C Kapoor," Shah said.

He added that the Gujarat's urban development department had issued a draft notification seeking objections and suggestions on the matter, a week ago.

"The purpose for introduction of online voting is to make affluent class people vote, who generally avoid going to polling booths and standing in long queues to vote. Besides, youths will be attracted to vote in this manner," he said.

"We are planning to rope in top IT firms of the country to give end-to-end services as it involves finer aspects like secrecy of vote, authenticity of the voter and ensuring that no bogus voting takes place," Shah said.

OneIndia News