The Supreme Court set to review a petition concerning the accuracy of reported voter numbers on May 24. The petition raises questions about potential discrepancies in voter counts. The outcome could have significant implications for electoral integrity.
New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) not yet released the actual voter numbers for the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, which held in five phases. All attention is now focused on the Supreme Court, which is set to hear the matter on May 24.
Last week, the Supreme Court issued a notice to the ECI in response to an application filed by the NGO Association of Democratic Reforms. The NGO requested that the ECI publish the absolute number of votes cast in all polling stations for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Additionally, the NGO demanded that the ECI disclose the number of votes polled on its website within 48 hours of the completion of voting.
Read Also: Supreme Court: Declines to Intervene in Election Commission’s Voter List.
Jagdeep S Chhokar, the founder of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), eagerly awaiting the Supreme Court hearing scheduled for May 24th. In their application, ADR sought a direction from the court to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to upload scanned copies of Form 17C, which records the number of votes polled in each booth, soon after the elections. Chhokar stated that if the Supreme Court orders the ECI to upload the copies of Form 17C, it will have to do so for the previous phases as well as the future phases of the ongoing elections.
The article mentions that the Supreme Court hearing this petition on the eve of the sixth phase of polling, and the seventh and final phase is scheduled for June 1st. It also notes that in 2019, ADR filed a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a probe into alleged discrepancies between voter turnout and the number of votes counted in 347 constituencies during the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
In 2019, the Election Commission of India (ECI), initially released the absolute numbers of gender-wise voter turnout for the Lok Sabha elections. However, the ECI later withdrew this data from their website after discrepancies were pointed out between the reported voter turnout and the actual number of votes counted in at least 347 constituencies.
Over the past few weeks, several opposition parties, including the Congress, CPM, and Trinamool Congress, have written letters to the ECI seeking the release of the final voter turnout figures and the total number of voters in each parliamentary constituency. The Congress party raised concerns about the significant difference between the real-time voter turnout data and the final figures released by the ECI, expressing worries among voters about the “strange goings-on” in the poll body.
The opposition parties called for greater transparency and accountability from the ECI in the release of electoral data, highlighting the need for the commission to address the discrepancies and provide a clear explanation to the public.
Pawan Khera, Congress leader and head of the media and publicity department, highlighted a significant discrepancy of approximately 1.7 crore votes, describing it as unprecedented.
Read Also: ECI to SC: “No Legal Mandate to Disclose Voter Turnout Data Under Form 17C”
He expressed concerns over the Election Commission’s handling of the voting process across the four phases, stating,
“Voters are troubled by the peculiar occurrences within the EC. Initially, it takes 10-11 days for the Election Commission to release the final voting figures, and subsequently, a gap of 1.7 crore votes between real-time data and the final count emerges.”
Jairam Ramesh, the AICC general secretary, emphasized,
“The significant variance of 1.07 crore votes overall equates to an average rise of 28,000 votes per Lok Sabha constituency. This is substantial.”
He questioned,
“The greatest disparities are observed in states where the BJP is anticipated to face significant losses. What exactly is unfolding?”
So far, voting concluded in 428 seats across twenty-five states over the course of five phases.