New Delhi:Â A week after taking charge as the chief election commissioner, Hari Shankar Brahma on Friday said the poll panel was contemplating allowing voting through the internet and the mobile.
This move may go down well with millions of young Indians who could use their smartphones or tablets to vote in elections.
Brahma said the EC was discussing the issue but was sceptical on its implementation as rural India is yet to have internet access.
“The world is changing at a fast speed and the situation will be different a few years down the line. We need to see the infrastructure and technology needed for this,” he said.
The Delhi government has already launched a mobile application ‘Delhi Elections’ where voters can identify their polling officer and track their voting identity. The State Elections Commission had previously launched an SMS service where people can check if their names are in the voting list or not.
Estonia was the first country which used internet voting for its parliamentary election in 2007. Following Estonia, the European Parliamentary Elections conducted voting through the internet in 2014 where roughly 31.3% people voted online.
India, with a voting population of 814.5 million, has over 937 million mobile phone users in the country of which roughly 349 million people use internet on their smartphones.Â
Â