Cyber cafes roped in as MBMC nomination process goes digital

Thanks to an initiative by the State Election Commission (SEC), next month’s elections for the 95-member Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) will take a leap into the digital age, as unlike the previous election cycles, this time, candidates would have to submit their nomination papers and all the other important documents online.

While elections are scheduled to be held on August 20, nomination forms would be accepted on an online platform which will be linked to the official website of the civic body from July 26 to August 2 (excluding Sunday) between 10 am to 3 pm.

Apart from training sessions for candidates to impart information with context to the online application process, offices of all election returning officers would have help desks to provide assistance.

In a unique move, the administration has also decided to rope in 13 cyber cafes in the twin-city for the purpose. To prevent any last-minute complications, the operating staff of the designated cyber cafes would also be trained in advance so as to ensure that aspiring candidates do not face any kind of difficulty while filing their nomination papers in the electronic format.

Once the candidates file their affidavit online, they would also need to provide attested hard copies to the concerned returning officer. The SEC has made it mandatory for candidates to file their nominations for the MBMC poll online.