New Delhi, June 08:
A committee will be set up to examine issues of migrant voters and explore the possibility of remote voting on a pilot basis, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The wider consultation with all stakeholders, including political parties, will be started after receipt of report,” the election overseer said.
There has to be a concerted effort to look into the problems faced by migrant workers, an official of the commission said, seeking anonymity. “We need to see what kind of technologies can be used to facilitate that.”
The decision was taken during a meeting of the poll panel on Tuesday under the chairmanship of chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar. Election commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey also attended the meeting.
The meeting comes days after Kumar and Pandey trekked about 18km to the most remote polling stations in Dumak and Kalgoth villages of Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district on June 3.
“It was further noted that in villages like Dumak and Kalgoth, about 20-25% registered voters are unable to cast their vote in their constituencies as they are required to move out of their village/state broadly on account of their jobs or educational pursuits,” the poll watchdog said. “This situation opens up the opportunity to explore possibilities of much-awaited leap forward to facilitate remote voting by migrant voters.”
The commission has been considering the possibility of remote voting by allowing people to cast their votes from their place of work. The project is being tried on a pilot basis, said the poll body.
“Voters migrate from the place of their registration to cities and other places for education, employment and other purposes. It becomes difficult for them to return to their registered polling stations to cast their vote,” it said. “The commission felt that time has come to explore possibilities of remote voting, maybe on a pilot basis. A committee would be set up to examine the issues of migrant voters.”
Nearly 10 million migrant workers employed in unorganized sector are registered with the government’s e-SHRAM portal. Currently, postal ballots are meant only for voters such as army personnel.
The commission also decided to double the remuneration of officials going to the remote polling stations three days in advance. Remuneration for all polling officials till now used to be a uniform daily amount.
To address voting apathy in urban areas, the poll panel decided to undertake focused awareness activities.
The commission noted with concern the abysmally low voter turnout in some urban areas despite the fact that polling stations are setup within 2km for any voter. “The need to address voting apathy in urban areas was felt,” its statement said.
The poll panel decided to undertake focused awareness activities in this respect and took note of the fact that under the Negotiable Instruments Act, the polling day is declared as a holiday for all workplaces with the primary purpose of facilitating voting by the employees, said the statement.
The poll body also directed all deputy electoral officers and returning officers to identify at least the five lowest voter turnout booths in each assembly constituency. “They shall visit these booths to identify factors for low voting turnout and take targeted interventions to mitigate the factors hampering the voting process,” the statement said.
