Niimi, in Okayama Prefecture, is aiming to use the nation's first electronic voting system in its mayoral and municipal assembly elections in June.

If the plan is realized, the city could begin phasing out the paper ballots that have been used nationwide for over 100 years.

The system under consideration uses computer terminals to display candidate lists and allows people to vote by pressing the screen.

A law allowing electronic voting in local elections was enacted in November.

According to the city's board of elections, votes will be recorded on floppy disks or similar media, which city officials would then collect and use to tally the election results.

An election board official said the introduction of an electronic voting system would reduce the number of spoiled ballots and thus better reflect voters' choices.

Another benefit would be the simplified vote-counting process. It took 85 city officials about 4 1/2 hours to finish counting the votes in 1994 elections.

By contrast, the city expects vote-counting in the June elections to be completed by fewer than half as many officials in just two hours.

However, there are still a number of restrictions on electronic voting, as the law stipulates it be introduced only on a trial basis in local elections and prohibits its use for national polls.

Additionally, absentee ballots must still be counted along with electronically cast votes, while establishing an online link between voting terminals is also banned, city officials said.

The issue of cost effectiveness is also dampening some municipalities' enthusiasm for electronic voting systems.

Aside from Niimi, Kochi and Hiroshima appear to be the only cities optimistic about introducing an electronic voting system in mayoral elections. The current Hiroshima mayor's term expires in February 2003.

The Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications Ministry earmarked 400 million yen in the fiscal 2002 budget to subsidize half the cost of electoral voting machines that municipalities will have to buy.

Each machine is expected to cost 400,000 yen, according to the ministry.