Ahmedabad: More than a decade after Gujarat positioned itself as a pioneer in electronic voting in local bodies polls, the experiment has quietly receded from the state’s civic elections. Despite repeated trials, sizable public spending and ambitious expansion plans, the Gujarat State Election Commission (SEC) has failed to build an e-voting system trusted or embraced by voters.The experiment began in 2010, when SEC introduced online voting for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and other urban local bodies. It was repeated in 2011 and again in 2015, with the promise of easing access and improving turnout. Instead, participation remained negligible. Voters had to register twice, navigate a complex verification process and, in many cases, vote from designated e-voting kiosks rather than their homes. Concerns over voter identification, data security and ballot secrecy persisted.The response told the story. “In one of the later municipal elections, just 806 out of nearly 95.9 lakh eligible voters across six municipal corporations opted for e-voting,” said a senior Ahmedabad collectorate official. Yet by then, the state had already spent heavily on the project. Between software development through Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), promotional campaigns and operational costs, “the SEC spent more than Rs 40 crore over a decade, including an advertising blitz in 2010 that urged voters to “break the line, enter online”.Even as adoption lagged, the idea refused to die. At various points, the state govt explored extending e-voting to district, taluka and gram panchayats. The panchayats department initiated studies on internet connectivity in rural Gujarat and gathered information from other states and countries. But those discussions remained largely theoretical. Back then, M V Joshi, secretary and spokesperson of the SEC had told TOI, “The contract with TCS is over, so we consulted National Informatics Centre (NIC) for the e-voting project. NIC has, however, informed us that they are experimenting with online voting systems for the Election Commission of India (ECI).” He added that the SEC had decided to wait until the NIC develops a new online voting system.
