Gandhinagar tests online voting in first civic poll

GANDHINAGAR, INDIA: Gandhinagar, the smallest municipal corporation in Gujarat with a voter population of just 1.35 lakh, saw its first civic body poll Tuesday with an experiment in online voting.

As many as 116 candidates, largely drawn from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, are contesting the 33 seats in 11 wards.

Though the state capital came into being almost 40 years ago, it continued to be run by a government-controlled notified body.

It took a citizens panel to fight a legal battle right up to the High Court for the municipal corporation to be formed.

Despite a herculean exercise to introduce online voting, the experiment has largely failed to garner the confidence of the voter.

"Perhaps it's an idea whose time is yet to come," said K.C. Kapoor, state electoral chief.

Only 670 people had registered for online voting and just about 500 of them had exercised their franchise by around closing time, the official said.

The online voting was a project close to the heart of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

The heads of state electoral offices in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra have come to the state to study the experiment.