Election Commission says ‘Chunavana app’ for voting in Karnataka will avoid irregularities.
“Is there an election app? Got OTP on mobile? Did you take a selfie? Uploaded it? Then come to the booth… your face will be scanned. Now vote with confidence”. This is what is going to happen in Karnataka on Wednesday’s Election Day. To begin with, this high-tech voting system was installed at a polling station in Bengaluru’s Shivaji Nagar.
Current voters at a polling station in Bengaluru will have to get a little high-tech if they want to exercise their right to vote in the Karnataka assembly elections. Voters must first register through Election Commission’s Chunavana mobile application – EC’s Chunavana mobile application. After that, when they enter their Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number in the app, an OTP will be sent to the voter’s registered mobile number. After this, voters have to upload a selfie of themselves on the app.
After the registration process, voters will undergo a facial recognition scanner when they reach the polling booth. If it matches the photo in the EC’s database, they will be allowed to cast their vote without having to provide any other documents. The first of its kind system has been set up at the second booth in Shivaji Nagar near the Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer’s office.
Officials hope that with this system, long queues can be eliminated, as well as fraudulent voting and election irregularities. If the event is successful, this high-tech system may be implemented in the entire Karnataka in the next elections.
Chunavana App
This is an idea that the students of SRM University’s Department of Computing Technologies came up with successfully in a 30-hour long offline hackathon. The app will provide all the information related to the Karnataka Assembly Elections for the convenience of the voters.
The app will provide users with polling booth location, navigation to polling booth, candidate information, polling officers details, queue at polling station on real-time basis, available parking space and nearby emergency facilities. Instead of four polling officers, only three polling officers can be deployed in a booth as facial recognition technology does not require further checks.
Booth Level Officers (BLOs) visited all the houses of the voters in these booths and explained the new technology. The app system is not mandatory for now and those who don’t want to opt for this facility can follow the traditional method. Karnataka Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Meena said that there will be a separate queue for the voters who will take advantage of this. “The booth at Shivaji Nagar was selected for the pilot project. Because there are only about 300 voters compared to 1,500 voters in other booths. “
