India to be the first with a flawless electoral system
22 March 2015 10:52 PM GMT
Speaking at a conference on electoral reforms in Kolkata, Chief Election Commissioner H S Brahma said: “There will be a biometric data of a person and it will be linked with the voter identity card and Aadhar card to prevent rigging.”
“Once we are able to seed the Aadhar number on EPIC card, it that will ensure no duplicate numbers. Hopefully, by 2015, India will be the only country in the world having absolute biometric information of voters. There will not be a single fraud or duplicate voter,” he said.
If someone holds a voter ID card with a Kolkata address and wants to change it, then he/she can do it by simply changing the address online after going through a security window.
On the context of the Supreme Court’s order, which said that Aadhar is not a pre-requisite for availing public services, he said: “Everyday lakhs of voters are seeding their names for Aadhar cards. We do not want to make it compulsory but our voters, themselves, want it. It is a good gesture.
“Once the Aadhar number is mentioned in the electoral rolls, individual voters can also change their address online because Aadhar will be the basic identity,” he added. “So far, 85 crore Indians have got their Aadhar numbers. It is expected that the remaining 25-30 crore people’s Aadhar cards would be done by August this year. In West Bengal, the Aadhar figure is around 55 per cent. If the government accepts the report of the Law Commission then 95 per cent of problems on issues of electoral reforms will be resolved,” he said. Speaking of electoral reforms, Brahma said that political reforms should also be talked about in the same spirit.
“Filing of nominations should also be online so that people can know the candidates better,” Brahma added.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission is planning to revoke registration of political parties, which have never contested any election in the last five to10 years. Brahma said there are more than 1,600 registered parties in the country, of which, only less than 200 participate in the electoral process.
“We are very seriously thinking that if a party has not participated in any election within a period of five years or seven years or 10 years then they should be suo moto deleted from the registration,” he said.
“Once we are able to seed the Aadhar number on EPIC card, it that will ensure no duplicate numbers. Hopefully, by 2015, India will be the only country in the world having absolute biometric information of voters. There will not be a single fraud or duplicate voter,” he said.
If someone holds a voter ID card with a Kolkata address and wants to change it, then he/she can do it by simply changing the address online after going through a security window.
On the context of the Supreme Court’s order, which said that Aadhar is not a pre-requisite for availing public services, he said: “Everyday lakhs of voters are seeding their names for Aadhar cards. We do not want to make it compulsory but our voters, themselves, want it. It is a good gesture.
“Once the Aadhar number is mentioned in the electoral rolls, individual voters can also change their address online because Aadhar will be the basic identity,” he added. “So far, 85 crore Indians have got their Aadhar numbers. It is expected that the remaining 25-30 crore people’s Aadhar cards would be done by August this year. In West Bengal, the Aadhar figure is around 55 per cent. If the government accepts the report of the Law Commission then 95 per cent of problems on issues of electoral reforms will be resolved,” he said. Speaking of electoral reforms, Brahma said that political reforms should also be talked about in the same spirit.
“Filing of nominations should also be online so that people can know the candidates better,” Brahma added.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission is planning to revoke registration of political parties, which have never contested any election in the last five to10 years. Brahma said there are more than 1,600 registered parties in the country, of which, only less than 200 participate in the electoral process.
“We are very seriously thinking that if a party has not participated in any election within a period of five years or seven years or 10 years then they should be suo moto deleted from the registration,” he said.
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