E-voting may be part of change in Lok Sabha elections 2024: CEC

New Delhi, Mar 26: Chief Election Commissioner, Sunil Arora said that e-voting may be allowed in the next Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

Arora said that e-voting may be part of the changes that may come into being by the next Lok Sabha elections.

In December last year, the EC proposed to the government to extend the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) facility, so far available to service voters, to eligible overseas Indian voters. In a letter to the legislative secretary in the law ministry on November 27, the Commission said with the successful execution of ETPBS in case of service voters, it is now "confident" that the facility can also be extended to the overseas electors.

"The Commission is technically and administratively ready to extend this facility in general elections to legislative assemblies of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry," the poll panel said. Elections in these state are due sometime in April-June next year.

It said the poll panel has been receiving several representations from Indian diaspora residing abroad to facilitate voting through postal ballots since such overseas electors are not in a position to be present in their polling area as travelling to India for this purpose is a costly affair and otherwise also, they cannot leave the country of their residence owing to specific compulsions of employment, education or other engagements. "Due to protocols associated with COVID-19, problem further gets compounded," the letter to the law ministry said.

The Commission observed that Section 62 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 envisages right to vote for every citizen registered in the electoral roll who is not subject to disqualification for voting. "Therefore, it is necessary to explore all avenues to enable exercise of a franchise by all eligible electors," it said.