Patna, Sep 25 (IANS) It is now official. The Election Commission (EC) has decided to webcast the coming Bihar assembly elections – on an experiment basis – to ensure free and fair polls.
‘The EC has decided for live webcast of the Bihar assembly elections, first time in any polls in India,’ additional chief electoral officer Kumar Anshumali said here Saturday.
The EC plans to webcast live polling at 20 percent of the 56,943 booths in the 243 assembly constituencies in Bihar.
‘The EC has already approached BSNL in this connection to provide broadband connectivity for it,’ Anshumali said.
He made it clear that the webcast will be for poll surveillance purpose and not for public viewing. The EC has requested the BSNL officials to inform it about the booths where it can provide the webcast facility.
Official sources here said the live webcast will be possible in urban and semi-urban booths because internet connectivity in rural booths will be a problem.
The six-phase assembly polls in the state will take place from Oct 21 to Nov 20. The counting of votes will be on Nov 24.
