New Delhi: Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra has said the idea of remote voting requires the trust of all stakeholders. He participated in a webinar organized by the Election Commission of India jointly with the Tamil Nadu Government e-Governance Agency.
The Election Commissioner said a large number of voters are unable to exercise their franchise due to geographical barriers.
He said factors like occupation, education and medical care lead to dislocation of voters throwing up challenges in ensuring hundred percent voting.
Mr Chandra, however, emphasised that in designing a technology based solution to overcome the problem, the primary consideration should be the ability to inspire the trust of all, assure integrity of electoral process and secrecy and inviolability of the ballot.
He said political parties need to be reassured that the system is tamper proof and secure. He clarified that the Election Commission is not envisioning internet based voting from home. He said remote voting may be to enable voters residing in remote locations, away from their designated polling stations, to cast ballot in a secured manner.
More than 800 people signed up for the webinar from around the world. Speakers shared global experiences of blockchain technology, scalability, data privacy and regulation, data security, authentication and verifiability in remote voting.
The webinar was addressed among others by the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Union Government, Prof K Vijay Raghavan, Director of IIT Bhilai, Prof Rajat Moona, Director of IIT Madras and Prof Bhaskar Ramamurthi.
