Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Election Commission (EC) has begun work for providing remote-voting facility to the citizens living away from their home towns for jobs or for other reasons.
As to the remote-voting facility, the EC released a concept paper on Thursday, seeking views of political parties on legal, procedural, administrative and technological challenges.
Once the system is implemented, people living far away from their native places will be able to vote. Those who are living abroad will not be required to go back to their home towns to cast votes.
The EC has developed a prototype Remote Electronic Voting Machine (RVM). It can conduct polling in up to 72 constituencies from a single remote polling booth.
In the digital era, denial of voting rights to those who are living away from their native place is not just.
In the 2019 general elections, voters’ turnout was 67.4pc, but over 30 crore electors did not exercise their right to vote.
Fall in voters’ turnout due to internal migration (domestic migrants) is a major constraint in ensuring greater participation of people in elections, which also needs to be addressed.
