Bihar mulls conducting panchayat polls via EVMs to bring transparency
Kerala, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are among few states where the EVMs have been used to conduct panchayat polls in the last several years, an official said.
The Bihar government is actively considering giving the State Election Commission (SEC) the go-ahead to hold the panchayat polls, to be held early next year, through electronic voting machines (EVMs).
If okayed, this will be the first electronic voting exercise in the state for filling up 2.58 lakh posts in the three-tier panchayat election.
The estimated cost in holding the elections through EVMs will be ₹392 crore, which will be ₹142 crore higher than the expenditure made in 2016 panchayat polls. Sources said the state government in 2016 panchayat polls had incurred a cost of ₹250 crore.
Sources said recently the SEC had sent a proposal to the panchayati raj department to hold the polls through EVMs, reasoning it will help in bringing transparency, checking counting anomalies and rigging.
Kerala, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are among few states where the EVMs have been used to conduct panchayat polls in the last several years, an official said.
“We have received the proposal from the SEC and it is in active consideration,” said additional chief secretary, panchayati raj department, Amrit Lal Meena. He said the proposal will be sent to the cabinet for approval.
Till now, the panchayat polls in the state have been conducted through ballot papers. The panchayat polls in the state are not held on party lines though a large number of candidates get backing of major political parties, especially for posts like mukhiya and district board members.
Meanwhile, sources said the panchayati raj department has started working on the modalities in connection with the requisition of EVMs from the Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Bengaluru.
“We will get the EVMs from ECIL once the proposal is approved. It suits our needs because we have six posts in the panchayats and the EVMs have multiple voting options,” said a government official.
In Bihar, elections in three-tier rural local bodies are held for six posts, namely ward member, mukhiya, panchayat samiti member, district board member, panch and sarpanch.
The voters get six sets of ballot papers during the voting to choose their nominees.
Now, if the EVMs are used, voters will have to press six buttons on the EVMs to vote against six posts, the official said.
There are a total of 8,387 gram panchayats (the bottom level of three-tier local bodies), 534 panchayat samities and 38 district boards. Total posts in the panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) in the state stand at 2.58 lakh with at least 1.15 lakh ward members in the gram panchayats.
“The panchayat elections in Bihar is one of the biggest poll exercises in terms of posts, number of candidates and booths. This is why we are in favour of using the EVMs so that the process is less time consuming, transparent and less cumbersome,” said an SEC official, pleading anonymity.
Digitising details
Incidentally, the SEC this time is also contemplating putting nomination papers of candidates on the SEC’s website and uploading affidavits having details of the candidates’ income, assets and personal profile as done in the legislative and parliamentary elections so that more information is available in the public domain.
Sources said the SEC is planning to hold the elections to the PRIs from April onwards and extend till May in a phase-wise manner in 2021. The process of nominations by candidates will start from March onwards.
The 2016 panchayat polls were held in ten phases in April-May with the counting process continuing till mid June, an official said. The total number of polling stations for panchayat election standing at 1.19 lakh is also expected to increase this election with possibility that maximum number of voters in each booth could be capped at 700.
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