In a first,online voting in Guj civic polls this year

Gujarat is set to become the first state in the country to enable citizens to cast their franchise online.

The Gujarat government and State Election Commission (SEC) have decided to introduce e-voting in the next local body elections becoming the first state in the country to enable citizens to cast their franchise online.

“This will be for the first time in the country that in any official election the method of online voting via internet will be used,beginning with Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation polls scheduled in mid-October followed by Rajkot,Vadodara,Surat,Bhavnagar and Jamnagar local body elections,” SEC Secretary,P H Shah told said.

“A task force has been formed to cover all the aspects of e-voting headed by State Election Commissioner K C Kapoor,” Shah said.

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Also,Gujarat’s urban development department has issued a draft notification asking for objections and suggestions on the issue last week,he said.

“The purpose for introduction of online voting is to make affluent class people vote,who generally avoid going to polling booths and standing in long queues to vote. Besides,youths will be attracted to vote in this manner,” he added.

“We are planning to rope in top IT firms of the country to give end-to-end services as it involves finer aspects like secrecy of vote,authenticity of the voter,ensuring that no bogus voting takes place,” Shah said.

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