Digital democracy is set to takeover the political arena in India, promising accountability and transparency in its wake.
Launched here today by founder of the concept Adam Jacoby, global CEO from Australia of the non government organisation miVote , miVote, India, CEO Joydeep Mondal and Jhoola Sharma of Jorhat, miVote has developed it’s own model in digital democracy in lines with the sustainable development goals of the United Nations Organisation.
Explaining the concept in turns, Jacoby and Mondal said that a politician of any affiliation, there could be any number could reach out to the people, read voters, through the digital technology which entails voting on important issues and a second step of voting again on the solutions which will be uploaded by miVote after taking into cognizance the most important issue which 60 per cent of the people had voted for.
“MiVote is not a political organisation but a platform for facilitating political parties and aspiring candidates. It does not have any political position or ideology, ” Mondal stated.
Social activist Jhoola Sharma who has been working for New Generation Youth, has been endorsed by MiVote to stand as Jorhat MP for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
” I have been based in Delhi for the past 10 years but my home town is Jorhat that is why I have chosen Jorhat for the launching where I hope to carry forward the , “she said.
Mondal said that anyone who failed to present the people’s problems in the proper forum, being it Parliament or elsewhere would no longer be endorsed by MiVote.
Explaining the system, Disha Paul, Chief of staff, MiVote, India said that the issues would be placed in the website for the northeast from January 10: To get in one had to give ones email address to which a six digit key would be sent after typing this in one could vote on any issue like food, infrastructure, security, erosion and would be specific to the area.
In the second stage of voting the policies or the best solutions would be uploaded for the key issue voted for by 60 per cent of the people. Next the people would have to vote for what they thought would be the best solution from among those uploaded.
In finding solutions MiVote would be partnering Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi.
The whole system would work on crowd funding and not corporate funding and provide complete security and anonymity through block chain technology, considered to be unhackable. .
In order to penetrate to the grassroots advisory committees would be formed and today about 50 youths attended a programme on New Leadership Trends and Digital Democracy at the Jorhat Planetarium and Science Center auditorium.
Jacoby said that he was working in 30 countries and was in constant touch with World Economic Forum, UNO and in partnership with Stanford University, all of which would be monitoring the situation in India.
” If we succeed here we will succeed in other aces, ” he said.
Yesterday, MiVote had been launched in Dimapur, Nagaland and Toyota meeting was scheduled to be addressed at Shillong, Meghalaya.
” MiVote aims to give a voice e to the people in the true sense of democracy” Jacoby said.