Former CECs flag political hurdles, security concerns over e-voting

Opinion comes at a time when Telangana SEC is set to carry out an e-voting experiment

Former Chief Election Commissioners (CEC) have raised a range of concerns, from maintaining secrecy of ballots to bringing political parties on board, around the idea of online voting and remote voting, at a time the Telangana State Election Commission is set to carry out an e-voting experiment and the Election Commission of India, too, is exploring remote voting.

The Telangana SEC would be carrying out a smartphone app-based online voting experiment on October 20, the State Government had announced last week. The ECI, on the other hand, had said last year that it was looking at the option of remote voting for those electors who cannot reach the polling stations they are registered at, however, this could entail voting from another location set up by the authorities and not Internet-based voting from home.

Former CEC S.Y. Quraishi said he wished the Telangana team the best, but “developing an app is child’s play.” He said the ECI had ruled out the option.