Election Commission of India.
The BJP has petitioned the Election Commission (EC) to allow e-voting for service personnel. Currently, ballot papers are sent to service personnel electronically. The votes once cast have to be sent back through postal system causing delay in their counting.
Union ministers J P Nadda and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi met Election Commissioner O P Rawat Tuesday and asked him to consider the plea “in view of elections due late this year/early next year”. Many people from Himachal, where the BJP is in opposition, are in the forces and the BJP is hoping to woo them. In the memorandum to EC, the BJP said: “Instead of only a one-way, the Commission may introduce a two way electronic voting process.’’
It said adequate legal and administrative arrangements may be made to ensure electronic submission of votes. “This would ensure that service personnel deployed, wherever, are able to cast their vote without any delay. This will vastly improve participation in democratic process by a sizable population of the country guarding our borders.”
“There are more than 40 lakh service voters in the country and just about 10 lakh are registered,’’ Naqvi told The Indian Express.
