On the one hand, if the opposition parties doubt the electronic voting machine (EVM) and counting process in the 2020 assembly elections, the state government, on the other hand, is planning to hold 2021 panchayat elections through EVMs in Bihar. The panchayat elections will be held in Bihar next year. Recently, the SEC sent a proposal to the Panchayati Raj Department to conduct elections through EVMs. The proposal argued that EVMs could help bring more transparency to elections. In addition, counting and rigging of anomalies will also be investigated.
If the panchayat election is conducted through EVMs, it will be the first electronic voting experiment to fill 2.58 lakh vacancies in three tier rural local bodies. The estimated cost of conducting the election through EVM in the state is Rs 392 crore. That is Rs 142 crore more than the expenditure made in the 2016 panchayat elections. According to official sources, the state government spent Rs 250 crore in the 2016 panchayat elections.
SEC has recently sent a proposal to the Panchayati Raj Department to conduct the election through EVMs, which will help to make it more transparent, check voting differences and mobilize. Meanwhile, EVMs have been used to conduct panchayat elections in some states like Kerala, the capital and Madhya Pradesh, an official said. Additional Chief Secretary of the Panchayati Raj Department Amrit Lal Meena said, “We have received a proposal from the SEC and are considering it. He said the proposal would be sent to the Cabinet for approval.
So far, panchayat elections have been held through ballots. Though a large number of candidates for the post, such as the chief and zilla parishad, receive the support of the major political parties, the panchayat elections in the state do not take the party line. According to sources, the Panchayati Raj department has started work on the need for EVMs from Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL), Bangalore, which manufactures special types of machinery for the election.
“We will get EVM from EICL soon after the proposal is approved,” a government official said. This fits our needs as we have six posts in panchayats and many voting options in EVMs. Let me tell you that in Bihar, the elections for the three tiers of rural local bodies will be held for six terms. It consists of ward member, chief, panchayat committee member, district council member, panchayat and sarpanch. Voters will receive six sets of ballots at the time of voting. Now if EVMs are used, voters will have to press six buttons on EVMs to vote for six posts. There are a total of 8,387 Gram Panchayats (lower level of three-tier local bodies), 534 Panchayat Committees and 38 District Councils in the state. There are a total of 2.58 lakh posts in the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) in the state and at least 1.15 lakh ward members in the Gram Panchayats.
An SEC official said that the state of Bihar’s panchayat is the biggest electoral exercise in terms of anonymity, number of election posts, candidates and booths. This is why we are in favor of using EVMs so that the process is less time consuming, transparent and less complicated.
Candidates will be submitted online details
Incidentally, the State Election Commission (SEC) is considering details of candidates’ revenues, assets and personal profiles on the department’s website, such as legislative and parliamentary elections. With this, people get more information about public representatives and candidates. According to sources, the SEC is planning to hold a PRI election by April and may gradually expand by 2021. Candidates submitting their nominations will start from March.
The 2016 panchayat elections were held in ten phases in April-May, which continued till mid-June, an official said. This time the number of polling stations in the panchayat elections could increase to 1.19 lakh while the maximum number of voters in each booth could be 700.
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