Election commission needs to be modernized
Voting has finished. Results are 1 day away. All are waiting and
guessing. Meanwhile, although election commission should be
congratulated for successful conduction of largely free and fair
elections. Its efforts to reach each and every corner of the country
irrespective of demographic constraints are commendable.
Yet there are
certain issues related to the handling of elections. And, these issues
need to be addressed if we want active and substantial participation of
public in the electoral process.
During
these elections, there have been many complaints of erroneous voting
lists. People's name are missing, though already registered. Take the
example of Mumbai and Pune. In these two cities alone, almost half a
million voters are missing from the list. What about
rest of the country?
People have not been added to the list despite
submitting valid applications. There have also been cases of transfer of
votes from one place to another, people have not found their names in
the voter list of new place and their names have been removed from that
of old place. I was lucky enough to cast my vote in this election after
transfer, but my name was not cleared from the list of my native town.
In my view, the overall process or procedure of voter registration is
not transparent and is handled in a very ad-hoc manner. Why is it so
that so much errors are there in the voter list? Can we call it a true
democracy, when a large chunk of voters is left out of the process. It
is very much required to revamp and modernize the age-old procedures of
electoral process so that they are the reflection of today, not of past.
Is online vote possible?
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