The former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) urged the EC to explain the discrepancy

Amid calls for a return to ballot paper elections by the Congress and doubts being cast over alleged EVM manipulation in Maharashtra, former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr. S.Y. Quraishi raised concerns over the sudden increase in the voter percentage figures during the recent Maharashtra assembly elections.

During an India Today segment, journalist Rajdeep Sardesai asked Dr. Quraishi about a sharp increase in voting percentage from provisional figures at 5 pm and the figures on the next day. This trend has been apparent particularly in the Maharashtra elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

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Sardesai cites the voting percentage in Maharashtra, which remained at 55 percent at 5 pm and then rose to 68 percent in the final tally, marking a 13 percent increase. The former Chief Election Commissioner said that the unexplained increase in voter percentage “worries” him.

Elaborating on the process, Dr. Quraishi highlighted that the real-time voter percentage is recorded in Form 17c and is updated throughout the voting process. At the end of the day, after voting concludes, the final numbers are recorded in the Form 17c and signed by the polling agent in charge of the booth.

“This is real-time data generated the same day. How can the data change the next day? Even I fail to understand,” emphasised the former CEC, highlighting that the numbers should not exhibit such significant variations post-elections.

The data in Form 17c is filled in by the supervisor of the counting station, and each candidate or their representative is required to sign the form, which is then run through by the Returning Officer (RO).

Dr. Quraishi called for the Election Commission to explain the alleged discrepancy. “What are they waiting for?” he asked.

“Election commission should come out and explain in a national televised media conference exactly what are these numbers and why is there a discrepancy happening which never happened before,” he observed.

The Form 17C includes data about the electors assigned to each booth, the number of registered voters in the area, the number of voters who decided not to vote, voters who were not allowed to vote, the numbers of votes recorded in the EVMs, if the number of votes recorded is equal to the number of voters minus those who did not vote, data about ballot paper (received, issued, and not used/returned), and data about paper seals (numbers issued/used/returned).

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During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, after several reports of alleged discrepancies, special interest groups, the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Common Cause, filed a petition alleging an increase of five to six percent between the preliminary data and the final data and sought the EC to publish Form 17c on the official website of the poll body after voting concludes.

Following the Supreme Court’s order to the poll body to respond, the EC said that the Court’s release of the data could create “widespread discomfort” and mistrust in the election process, with the possibility of the images being morphed and distributed across.