E-voting won’t be a reality in February elections

Even as the civic body is strategising ways to attract more voters, the state election commission’s highly awaited e-voting facility – which would enable you to cast your vote online within the comfort of your homes – will not be implemented for the upcoming city civic polls. Sayli Udas Mankikar reports.

Even as the civic body is strategising ways to attract more voters, the state election commission’s highly awaited e-voting facility – which would enable you to cast your vote online within the comfort of your homes – will not be implemented for the upcoming city civic polls.

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“We have not been able to set it up this time,” state election commissioner Neela Satyanarayan admitted, while announcing the election dates on Tuesday.

However, she said that many other rules have been relaxed to make the process more convenient for voters, such as allowing polling booths to be set up in residential complexes with more than 1,000 voters, even if there is no school or government building in the premises. “The list of booths in housing complexes will be announced by the municipal commissioner once he finalises the voters list,” she added.

The state election commission has also requested all corporations in the state to set up all booths on the ground floors of buildings.

“The BMC commissioner however has said that in 39 locations, the booths will have to be on the ground floor plus the first floor, due to lack of space. I will personally visit these centres to check if there really is no alternative,” Satyanarayan said.