Election Fee to introduce new system for well timed & correct updates on voter turnout developments

New Delhi:The Election Fee of India (ECI) on Tuesday introduced to introduce a brand new technology-driven system to supply extra well timed and correct updates on voter turnout developments.

The initiative, referred to as the Voter Turnout Ratio (VTR), will probably be built-in into the ECINET app and permit Presiding Officers (PROs) at every polling station to enter voter turnout knowledge immediately each two hours on polling day.

“Below this new initiative, the Presiding Officer (PRO) of every polling station, will now be immediately coming into voter turnout on the brand new ECINET App each two hours on polling day as a way to scale back the time lag within the updation of the approximate polling developments. This will probably be robotically aggregated on the constituency stage. The approximate voting share developments will proceed to be printed each two hours as earlier than,” the ECI stated in an announcement.

In keeping with ECI, the brand new VTR sharing course of reduces the time lag related to earlier handbook reporting strategies. Nonetheless, the authorized requirement to element the account of votes recorded by the polling brokers stays unchanged.

“Below the statutory framework of Rule 49S of the Conduct of Elections Guidelines, 1961, Presiding Officers (PROs) are required to furnish Type 17C, detailing the account of votes recorded, to polling brokers, who’re nominated by the candidates and are current on the polling station on the shut of ballot. Whereas this authorized requirement stays unchanged, the method of updating the VTR App, which had advanced as a facilitative, non-statutory mechanism to maintain the general public knowledgeable of the approximate voter turnout share developments is being streamlined to make sure sooner updation,” the ECI stated.

The PROs will enter the voter turnout knowledge into the ECINET app after the closing of ballot, which would cut back the delays and make sure that approximate share of votes polled could be obtainable on the up to date VTR app constituency-wise.

“The place cellular networks are unavailable, entries might be made offline and synced as soon as connectivity is restored. This up to date VTR App will turn out to be an integral a part of ECINET earlier than the Bihar elections,” it stated.

Earlier, sector officers collected voter turnout knowledge manually and handed it on to Returning Officers (ROs) through cellphone calls, SMS, or messaging apps.

“This data was aggregated each two hours and uploaded to the Voter Turnout (VTR) App. The polling share developments had been typically up to date hours later, primarily based on bodily data arriving late within the evening and even the subsequent day, resulting in delays of 4-5-hours or extra resulting in misperceptions by some,” it added.