Election Commission Designed Software ‘ENCORE’

The Election Commission of India has developed in-house software called ENCORE for effective candidate and election management.

About ENCORE

The full form of ENCORE is Enabling Communications on Real-time Environment. There are three types of ENCORE Application.

ENCORE Counting Application

The ENCORE counting application is a comprehensive platform that helps returning officers to digitize the votes they receive, tabulate the round-wise data, and produce various statutory reports for counting. It provides a seamless facility for managing candidate nominations, affidavits, voter turnout, counting, results, and data management.

ENCORE Scrutiny Application 

The ENCORE Scrutiny Application is a tool that enables Returning Officers to scrutinize the nominations submitted by candidates online. Once the nominations are verified, their status is marked as either Accepted, Rejected, or Withdrawn. This helps the Returning Officer prepare a final list of contesting candidates and assign symbols to them.

ENCORE Nodal App

The ENCORE Nodal App requires various departments to issue a 'no objection' certificate before granting permission for political rallies, road shows, and meetings.

About Election Commission of India

The Election Commission of India is a constitutional body. It was established on January 25th, 1950, under the Constitution of India. The Election Commission of India celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 2001.

The Election Commission of India Under Article 324 has been granted the responsibility of supervising, directing, and managing the entire electoral process for Parliament and the Legislature of each State, as well as for the President and Vice-President of India.

Composition: At first, the commission consisted of only one Chief Election Commissioner. However, it now consists of one Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners.

Two extra Commissioners were first appointed on October 16th, 1989, but their tenure was brief, lasting only until January 1st, 1990. Two additional Election Commissioners were appointed on October 1st, 1993, and the concept of a multi-member Commission has been in operation since then, allowing for decision-making power by a majority vote.

Tenure: The President appoints the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners, who have a tenure of six years or until the age of 65, whichever comes first. 

Salary: They are entitled to the same status, salary, and benefits as Judges of the Supreme Court of India. The Chief Election Commissioner can only be removed from office through impeachment by Parliament.

ECI also has apps related to the electoral process, such as Saksham App, cVigil App, Candidate App, Booth App, BLO App, and Observer App.