Goa: Promise of online voter registration from November

On-line voter registration will become a reality from November onwards in Goa, says the state electoral authority.A nationwide project to network offices of the various state electoral authorities and the Election Commission of India is on the way, said the assistant chief electoral officer Arvind Bugde, reports The Times of India.

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Although its promise didn't materialise earlier, the state electoral authority has assured that on-line voter registration will become a reality from November onwards.

Speaking to TOI, assistant chief electoral officerArvind Bugde said that its implementation would be part of a nationwide project to network offices of the various state electoral authorities and the Election Commission of India.

"We have to demonstrate the software to the ECI. The next summary revision of the electoral roll will be sometime in November, Therefore we plan to go online before that," Bugde said. The qualifying date for new voters for the next summary revision will be - the person has to be 18 years of age as on January 1, 2011. "Implementing this software will give us the facility of an online national database and related intelligence will be made available to us," he added.

Bugde also informed that electoral reforms have been undertaken. "Now, transposition of your name within the assembly segment will require you to fill up Form 6 with details of your part number and serial number. Also, in the case of new voters, it will be easier for you to register if any of your family member has voting rights," he said.

"You have to mention the name and EPIC details of the concerned family member while filling up the application and that will be verified by us. However, if none of your family members are on the voter rolls, verification of your details as mentioned in your application will be undertaken by us. If we find the details suspect, the application will be rejected," the assistant chief electoral officer said.

At present, the state electoral authority has achieved network connectivity across all talukas by availing the Goa Broadband Network (GBBN) facility. "Any correction to the voter roll is being done internally by us through the network. The data is routed through the central NIC server in Porvorim and a login name and password has been given to the different Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) in Goa. It has saved us a lot of paperwork. Now, data entry operators enter the voter's details, and once verified by the ERO, it is added to the electoral roll. With this software and the hardware already in place, it has helped us in seamless communication and we are currently ahead of other states in the process to implement the online voter registration facility," Bugde said.

"Those applying for voter registration online will be given a unique application number. This number will help them track the progress of their request; for example: if one changes residence and has applied for transposition of name to another constituency," he explained.