The Election Commission on Monday put off the demonstration of how voting machines could be used to cast votes from a remote location as most political parties attending the meeting expressed their opposition to the proposal, The Indian Express reported.
At the meeting held in Delhi, the poll panel was slated to show a prototype of a remote electronic voting machine to representatives of eight national parties and 40 state parties. However, it did not conduct the demonstration as parties sought a more detailed discussion on the matter, unidentified officials told the newspaper.
The poll panel has said that the remote electronic voting machine has been developed to enable domestic migrants to vote in elections without having to travel to their native constituencies.
The Election Commission had earlier asked political parties to submit their opinions on the proposal in writing by January 31. On Monday, it extended the date till February 28.
Ahead of the meeting, the Congress had on Sunday called for a meeting of Opposition parties to discuss their concerns about the voting machines. After the meeting, party leader Digvijaya Singh said that most of them were not in favour of the poll panel’s proposal.
At the meeting on Monday, political parties agreed with the broader aim of improving voter turnouts, an unidentified Election Commission official said,…
