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Hyderabad: Future elections in Telangana may see a major turnaround in the voting process, with the state government gearing up for the first time in the country a smartphone-based e-voting system for a dry run.
This system allows voters to vote through their mobile phones by downloading an application.
A dummy election will be held in Khammam district on October 20 to test this application and all eligible voters of the district can participate by applying on the app. 8 to 18 October.
The initiative for the e-voting system was taken up by the Telangana State Election Commission (TSEC), and implemented with the support of the Emerging Technologies Wing of the state’s IT Electronics and Communications Department, with technical developments by the Center for Development of Advanced Computing. it was done. CDAC).
The technical development was also guided by an expert committee comprising Prof Rajat Moona, Director, IIT Bhilai and Technical Advisor to the Election Commission of India and Professors from IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi.
According to a statement issued by the Emerging Technologies Wing, which was also shared by the office of IT Minister KT Rama Rao, the mobile application will perform three-factor authentication of legitimate voters using artificial intelligence.
This includes matching voters’ names with their Aadhar cards, live tracing of individuals and matching their image with 15 to 20 year old records with the EPIC (Electoral Photo Identity Card) database.
“In addition, Blockchain (Distributed Ledger) technology has been used to secure de-identified and encrypted votes so that they can be maintained as immutable records,” read the statement on Wednesday.
It added: “The smartphone application follows a minimalist design approach and supports both English and Telugu, and also has a detailed help section with tutorial videos and helpline numbers to assist citizens.”
However, experts such as former Chief Election Commissioner SY Qureshi have raised concerns over the dangers of online voting and how easily it can be manipulated, “which is why the Election Commission of India has not considered it”.
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mobile app details
The dry run will be done using the ‘TSEC eVote’ Android application, which is a “security hardening” app to prevent tampering, the statement said. It also binds the device ID and phone number to a specific citizen during registration to ensure that the same device is used for voting to enhance security.
The entire process will be monitored and controlled by the administrator using a web portal, with the need for physical security token-based decryption to further protect the generation and access of the results.
The data collected by the app will also be stored in State Data Centers (SDCs) as an additional security consideration.
According to State Election Commissioner C. Partha Sarathi, the commission is autonomous to the Election Commission of India, and is free to implement changes in the election process in the state.
“The State Election Commission also derives its powers from the Constitution, so when the SEC wants to implement something new there is no need for such approval from the ECI. And the evoting solution is only in the tested states, if we want to implement it. or want to run a pilot project, the SEC must first seek the consent of all political parties,” Partha Sarathi told ThePrint.
ThePrint reached out to the Election Commission of India over email for a comment, but did not receive a response till the time of publication of this report.
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‘Voting on the Internet can be rigged’
Cautioning about the pitfalls of the move, former CEC Qureshi told ThePrint: “Developing an app is a child’s play, the issue is with implementation and reliability. In a country where EVM technology, VVPAT technology (which we pioneered and put to use after 40 years of experimentation) is being challenged in the Supreme Court, it would be foolish to think that something like this would be accepted. Voting on the Internet can be rigged, so the Election Commission did not consider it.
He said: “When you go to the polling station, no one knows who you are voting for. But with such an app, anyone can come home and bribe people or threaten to vote for a particular candidate. Privacy cannot be guaranteed in the home.”
Srinivas Kodali, an independent researcher working on data and governance, also said that if implemented, app-based voting poses risks to the idea of a “secret ballot” and the app’s “source code” would be subject to privacy. Can’t be sure.
“The basic principle of conducting elections freely is to use secret ballot and this move poses a risk to that idea. For example, there is a bug and in order to fix it, the source code of the application needs to be viewed. How can they ensure confidentiality in such a case?” Kodali told ThePrint.
“And when such decisions are taken then a public discussion is required and if the government wants to implement it, a government order should be passed. And the statement on why is it coming from a government office, shouldn’t it be just the office of the Election Commission? How can a government be so actively involved in this?”
Kodali also pointed out how Kenya’s electronic voting system posed challenges in the 2017 presidential election. The country’s IEBC (Free Election and Boundary Commission) at that time Said That the “failed attempt” to hack the voting system was made a week before the election.
(Edited by Rachel John)
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