E-voting facility is likely to be introduced in the general
elections in 2019 or 2024. This was hinted at by state’s chief
electoral officer Bhanwar Lal at the National Voters Day
celebrations organised by the United Federation of Resident
Welfare Associations at Paryatak Bhavan here.
Speaking about the challenges of organising a free and fair
election, he said, “For the first time in the country, the 2014
general election was peaceful. We recorded an overall 77 pc voter
turnout in the combined state.
In some areas, the vote percentage was as high as 90 pc.” During
the previous elections, a massive sum of `153 cr was seized from
several politicians in the state.
This is approximately 60 pc of the money seized in the entire
country. Similarly, 5.76 lakh litres of liquor, which is 75 pc of
that seized in the whole country, was seized in the state. On the
one hand, officials and volunteers are toiling to ensure safe
elections but, on the other hand, politicians are spending huge
sums of money on polls, he said.
He also spoke in depth on Election Commission’s pilot project to
link voters’ ID with Aadhar card to eliminate bogus voters.
“We have successfully implemented this project in Nizamabad where
18 lakh Voter IDs were linked with Aadhar card for the first time
in the country. By doing so, we were able to detect 4.50 pc bogus
voters,” he said, adding that a similar exercise would be
undertaken in the 24 constituencies in Greater Hyderabad.
“Fairness in elections does not depend solely on the Election
Commission and the volunteer organisations but also on the
citizens who should cast their vote with honesty and not with
caste, religion and region considerations,” Bhanwar Lal said. #KhabarLive
