Madhya Pradesh poll body conducts paperless voting in gram panchayat by-election

Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh State Election Commission has successfully conducted paperless voting at a booth in a panchayat bypoll in Bhopal district as a pilot project and recorded 84 per cent turnout, an official said.

The paperless booth was used for the first time in the country by the Madhya Pradesh SEC for the voting on Wednesday at polling station-295 Ratua Ratanpur gram panchayat of Berasia development block here, the official said.

"Paperless booths have been planned for the purpose of conducting a simple, smooth and transparent voting process in panchayats and urban bodies. In the panchayat elections, 26 forms are filled for the completion of all the procedures and reporting at the polling station," State Election Commission secretary Abhishek Singh said.

There are disputes and court cases are also filed when there is a mistake, he noted.

"These forms are being digitised by making paperless booths. Its first experiment was done in Ratua Ratanpur, which was completely successful with 84 per cent turnout," he said.

In the paperless process, the signature and thumb impression were recorded electronically for the identity and voting record of the electors.

Voting percentage and ballot accounting was also done online, the official said.

The voting percentage was received online every two hours on all platforms. After the end of polling, the ballot paper account will also be made available to the candidates and polling agents on their e-mail ID, he said.

To realise the concept of paperless booth, work is being done at both the hardware and software levels, so that in future this system can be implemented at polling stations across the state, the official added.