The Election Commission of India (ECI) is likely to introduce a booth application for the forthcoming assembly polls in West Bengal. The introduction of the app is being done in order to eliminate bogus voters, avoid duplicate voting and also yield accurate details of the entire polling process every two hours, officials have said. West Bengal will be the first state to use the application in a full-fledged manner during an election process. The application was pilot-launched in five polling stations in Hamirpur of Uttar Pradesh, three assembly constituencies in Maharashtra, Bihar and Punjab and then in 10 assembly constituencies in Jharkhand in November 2019.
The tenure of the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government led by chief minister Mamata Banerjee will end on May 30 this year. In the 2016 West Bengal assembly election, out of the 294 seats, Congress had managed to win 44 seats while the Left Front bagged 33 seats. The ruling TMC secured 211 seats and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won three seats. Elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly are due in April-May.
Here’s everything you need to know about the ECI booth app:
1. The functional process of the app consists of an encrypted QR code that will be created on the photo voter slips.
2. The booth-level officer will scan the code and then allow entry of voters whose names are listed.
{{/usCountry}}2. The booth-level officer will scan the code and then allow entry of voters whose names are listed.
{{/usCountry}}3. The code will be scanned again to verify the identity of the voter before allowing him/her to poll.
4. All the recorded entries will then be transmitted back to the EC’s central server as the app is configured to connect to the central ECI server in a minimalistic way, transmitting data in an encrypted manner.
5. Only the returning officer will be able to see the dashboard about real-time voter turnout and other poll events.
6. The app will help reduce errors that occur due to incorrect entries as well as help in the reconciliation of the figures from the electronic voting machines (EVM) to the turnout.
7. The booth app can auto-detect duplicate entries which will prevent repeat voters from entering the polling station. Whenever there is a duplicate entry, the polling official will get a loud sound on his mobile phone.
8. The app will also be able to give information on gender-wise polling, age-wise polling, speed of polling, traffic during the day and other poll-related events and incidences.
(With agency inputs)