Election Commission showcases remote voting machine for migrant domestic workers

The Election Commission on Monday showcased prototype of the remote electronic voting machines to the political parties here, with as many as 15 opposition parties opposed them.

EC seeks written views from political parties

They will ensure voting at remote polling stations for the domestic migrants as a modified version of the EVM that provides technological solution, which is credible, accessible and acceptable to all stake holders, the EC told a meeting of the political parties. The EC has solicited written views of the recognised political parties by January 31.

A migrant voter would not need to travel back to his home district to exercise his franchise of voting. The machine will be able to handle multiple constituencies from a single remote polling booth.

EC invited functionaries of political parties for demo

The Election Commission invited the chairpersons, presidents, and general secretaries of all the recognised eight national and 57 regional parties to demonstrate the functioning of the multi-constituency prototype remote EVM.

Migration-based disenfranchisement is indeed not an option in the age of technological advancement. The voter turnout in General Elections 2019 was 67.4 % and the Election Commission of India is concerned about the issue of over 30 crore electors not exercising their franchise and also differential voter turnout in various states/Uts,” the poll body said in a statement.

Opposition questions EC on concerns over EVMs

Earlier, a concept note was circulated among the political parties highlighting the challenges of defining domestic migrants, implementation of the Model Code of Conduct, ensuring secrecy of voting, facility of polling agents for identification of voters, process and method of remote voting, and counting of votes among other issues.

The opposition parties, led by the Congress, decried the EC for its silence on their EVM concerns.