Now,Gujarat looks at online voting

After bringing in compulsory voting in local body polls,Gujarat is now looking at online and SMS voting.

The Gujarat State Election Commission is discussing plans to introduce voting through SMSes and over the Internet for municipal and panchayat elections. EC officials are giving final touches to the idea.

EC sources said the concept had been suggested to the state government and that although it was still under consideration,the Commission is very serious about it.

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A task force consisting of experts (from and outside Gujarat) and government officials will be set up once the state government gives a go-ahead.

This task force will then deliberate on the details of the concept and the IT infrastructure needed for the online voting system. We have also suggested some names for the task force and the final approval of the state government is awaited, the sources said,adding that it was hoped that the concept would be ready for use in state local polls later this year.

The EC officials said the concept was aimed at improving voter participation,but they also stressed on the need to be cautious about hacking and thus the need for robust security measures.

The servers,which will store the data,will have to be able to recognise each voter,accepting only the genuine votes and rejecting the fake ones,they said.

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The officials said the Commission would like to test the concept on a pilot basis even if it could not be enforced on a wide scale.