The Election Commission of India on Thursday developed a prototype of the remote electronic voting machine for domestic migrant voters. The aim is to ensure voting facilities for all, even those away from their hometowns.
According to the ECI statement, the poll panel has also floated a concept note on remote voting and sought the views of political parties on the legal, administrative and technical challenges in implementing it.
The multi-constituency remote EVM can handle up to 72 constituencies from a single remote polling booth.
"After focus on youth and urban apathy, remote voting will be a transformational initiative for strengthening participation in electoral democracy," Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said.
"The voter turnout in General Elections 2019 was 67.4 per cent and the Election Commission of India is concerned about the issue of over 30 crore electors not exercising their franchise," said the poll body in the press note.
"It is understood that there are multifarious reasons for a voter not opting to register in a new place of residence, thus missing out on exercising the right to vote. Inability to vote due to internal migration is one of the prominent reasons," it added.
It also noted the limitation that there is no central database showing the actual numbers of migrants within the country.
"Out-migration is predominant among the rural population in overall domestic migration. Approximately 85 per cent of the internal migration is within the states," the statement added.
The poll body's Technical Expert Committee will also be present for the demo. The poll body had also sought the views of all political parties by January 31.
