Gujarat State Election Commission gives presentation on e-voting to ECI

AHMEDABAD: The State Election Commission (SEC) of Gujarat today made a presentation before the Election Commissioner of India A K Joti on the e-voting system which will be used on a large scale in the municipal elections in October.

E-voting system allows online voting. It will be used in the elections of six municipal corporations in the state, Joti said here after a meeting with SEC officials.

Though local body polls fall in the purview of SEC, Joti showed interest in the e-voting system during his visit.

"Gujarat became the first state to introduce e-voting in 2010 on experimental basis. At that time one ward in each municipal corporation was selected for e-voting. Now Gujarat government has taken up a drive to expand the horizons of that system and involve more voters in it," Joti told reporters.

"State election commissioner Varesh Sinha and others showed me a presentation about how it will be implemented. I am told that e-voting will now be available for voters of every ward of all the municipal corporations going to polls (in October)," said Joti, a 1975 batch IAS officer who was earlier chief secretary of Gujarat.

Of the eight municipal corporations in Gujarat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Surat are having elections this year.

Secretary of SEC, M V Joshi, said the voters of these six corporations will now have a choice of voting online without visiting the booth. "To avail of the facility, the voter has to register himself with us," he said.