15:00 PM
Leiao Gerega
Papua New Guinea Electoral Commissioner, Mr Patilias Gamato has expressed interest in the use of Electronic Voter Machines (EVM) from a meet with the Chief Election Commissioner of India, Shri A.K. Joti.
The meeting took place at the office of the Election Commissioner of India (ECI) in New Delhi earlier this month.
With elections posing significant challenges for Papua New Guineans in terms of security the the EVM, a standalone, closed system, which operates without internet connectivity compared to e-Voting has created a great interest for PNG to consider.
This offline feature has proven to be much more secure and could be helpful to maintain security of election results.
“We [PNG EC] are keen to learn from the Election Commission of India in terms of technologies used in elections in India. We are particularly interested in the Electronic Voter Machines used for counting,” Mr Gamato said.
ECI manages a massive voter population of over 850 million voters with the use of innovative technologies such as the use of EVMs for counting during elections.
The success of the use of EVMs has been realized for over 20 years with further technological improvements to the EVM. Several legislation changes were made to recognize the current success of the EVM technology.