In an era when fast digital updates of data are a norm, the website of Chief Electoral Officer of Goa was going through ‘digital lethargy’ in the high time of elections
#TGLife
When the entire country’s eyes are glued to the television screens, smart phones and other electronic gadgets for ‘General Elections to Loksabha 2019’ updates, Goans who also voted for the ‘By Election to the Legislative Assembly of Goa 2019’ in Panaji, Mapusa, Shiroda and Mandrem were at loss of authentic information through the official website of The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Goa.
“There’s so much excitement in the air. The entire country is watching the trends and eager to know the results. We, teenagers, are interested to know what will happen to our future. We are anxious to know, in whose hands we are going to give our state of Goa and our country,” claims Nilesh Naik, a 20-year-old from Margao.
However, the youth like Nilesh had to depend on the local news channels for the updates of both Lok Sabha seats, in North Goa and South Goa. “There was no buzz on the official electoral website of Goa, which had only uploaded the details of the constituencies that went to polls on May 23,” pointed out Nilesh.
“When all the channels in the national and international media, including BBC were running live updates of the leads and trails of the General Elections in India, why were the official websites of state mute?” Nilesh wanted to rightly know.
The state as well as national official websites have not put up any live updates regarding the elections in Goa. The CEO, Goa website as well as the Election Commission of India website, both, did not put up the results in Goa even after they were long out on other private digital platforms. Why this digital silence on this day of hustle bustle and this in a state that talks of digital revolution and IT habitat, asks Nilesh, pointing out that ‘Goa Votes 2019’ gallery on the CEO website has only 24 pictures uploaded in the photo section and not a single video uploaded in the video section.
The country is talking of e-revolution - the digitalisation of villages, giving laptops to primary school children, e-governance and e-licences, the computerisation and digitally connecting government and administration to various departments, why is the right of voters to know the fate of their votes through appropriate official mediums denied?
