New Delhi, January 9
Inability to vote due to internal migration, along with “urban apathy and youth apathy”, is contributing to low voter turnouts, the Election Commission (EC) told a parliamentary panel on Monday while discussing the feasibility of remote voting, sources said.
Senior officials of the Commission and the Department of Legislative briefed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, chaired by senior BJP leader and former Bihar chief minister Sushil Modi.
Noting that it always had concern over the issue of “about 30 crore electors not exercising their franchise” and a differential voter turnout in different states, the poll panel said there are multiple reasons for them not exercising their right to vote.
“Amongst the many reasons like urban apathy and youth apathy, inability to vote due to internal migration (domestic migration) is also one of the prominent reasons contributing to low voter turnouts,” a source said while quoting the poll panel’s presentation.
Discussing remote voting, especially for migrant voters, the EC is learnt to have told that it entails a host of legal, statutory, administrative and technological interventions on a spectrum of issues, requiring wider consultations with all stakeholders and it is actively deliberating on the matter with stakeholders.
“It is important that any system of remote voting has to take into account the confidence and acceptability of all stakeholders of the electoral system — voters, political parties and election machinery,” another source quoting the EC said.
The EC is also learnt to have told that in its view, the technology for remote voting should be standalone like electronic voting machines (EVMs) and should not be connected to any network in any form to rule out any transmitting data.
Accordingly, the EC said it is working with a committee of technical experts, Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) and Bharat Electronics Limited.
