'E-Voting A Possibility In Next Elections In Hyderabad'

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.