Bypolls: From webcasting at 100% polling stations to mobile deposit facility, EC marks several firsts
Image credit: PTI
NEW DELHI: The bypolls to five assembly seats on Thursday across Gujarat, Kerala, Punjab and West Bengal recorded several firsts, including faster voter turnout updates, webcasting at 100% polling stations and provision of mobile deposit facility at polling stations.
The assembly constituencies (ACs) , which witnessed moderate-to-high polling, include Kadi (SC) and Visavadar in Gujarat, Nilambur in Kerala, Ludhiana West in Punjab and Kaliganj in West Bengal.
'The bye-polls...witnessed successful implementation of several major new initiatives launched by the ECI in the past four months, as envisaged by the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar along with election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi,' EC said in a statement issued at the end of poll.
An initiative introduced in these bye-polls is the provision of mobile deposit facility for the electors at all polling stations. Upgraded voter turnout sharing process ensured faster availability of approximate polling trends by ensuring that the presiding officer updated the voter turnout data at the close of poll, prior to leaving the polling station. Webcasting facility at almost all polling stations helped ensure constant vigil of the polling process.
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Special Summary Revision (SSR) of the electoral rolls was conducted before the bye-polls for the first time in nearly two decades.
The successful implementation of the above-mentioned measures in the bye-polls paves the way for their replication in the ensuing Bihar assembly election.
For the first time, simple pigeonhole boxes or jute bags were provided at the entrance door of the polling stations to enable the voters to deposit their mobile phones before queueing up to vote.
Volunteers were deployed at the polling stations to facilitate the process.
The presiding officer of each polling station, in a first, entered the voter turnout on the new ECINET App every two hours on polling day, reducing the time lag in updating of approximate polling trends. This was automatically aggregated at the constituency level. Also, voter turnout data was entered into ECINET by presiding officers immediately before they left the polling station after completion of poll, to ensure that the approximate percentage of votes polled was available on the app constituency-wise after the close of poll.
Previously, voter turnout data was collected manually by sector officers and relayed to returning officers (ROs) via phone calls, SMS, or messaging apps. At the close of poll, the presiding officer used to update the final VTR data after completing all other statutory responsibilities. Thus, the polling percentage trends were often updated hours later.
The Commission has ensured 100% webcasting of poll-day activities at all polling stations, except one, in the five bye-poll ACs.
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