NEW DELHI, June 27: Bihar is set to become the first state in the country to introduce voting through a mobile phone at the elections for six municipal councils across three districts – Patna, Rohtas, and East Champaran – on Saturday, the State Election Commissioner Deepak Prasad said on Friday.
He, however, did not specify if the voting will take place in a similar manner in the coming Assembly Elections as well.
The Election Commissioner said the vote-by-mobile facility would be available to those who were unable to go to the polling booth to cast their votes. He said the voters must have an app installed on their phone to be able to cast vote online. The official said that this facility can be availed by senior citizens, differently abled people, pregnant women and migrant voters. The Election Commission had also run an awareness campaign in this regard from June 10 to 22.
The voters must download the e-SECBHR mobile application on their phone and link it to the phone number that they used to register their name on the electoral roll. Reports suggest that this app is currently compatible only with Android phones.
Prasad said the app was created by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), and another app was made by the Bihar State Election Commission. In order to keep the voting process fair and transparent, only two registered voters are allowed to log in using one mobile number. Each vote will be checked and verified using the voter’s ID.
The voters who do not own a mobile phone can also cast an e-vote on the Bihar Election Commission’s website.
Prasad said around 10,000 voters had already registered for the e-voting system, and nearly 50,000 more are expected to vote online instead of going to polling booths.
When asked how the voting process would remain safe and fair, he outlined strong digital security measures that have been put in place. “The system will include features like blockchain technology, face matching, and scanning to make sure it can’t be tampered with,” he explained.
He also added that there would be an audit trail—similar to the VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) used with Electronic Voting Machines in Assembly and Lok Sabha Elections—to keep a record of the votes.
(Manas Dasgupta)
