What Is The Controversy About The Voting Percentage?
Out of the seven phases of the 18th Lok Sabha elections, four have concluded so far. With each phase, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has come under fire for not releasing the actual numbers regarding the voting percentage not being released soon after the polling is concluded. While the EC has said that around 451 million have voted so far, the constituency-wise data for each seat that has undergone voting still has not been released.
What The Opposition Said
Criticising the discrepancies in the voting data released by the poll body, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge wrote a letter questioning the credibility of the EC. Kharge highlighted that the final voter turnout data was released 11 days after the first phase (April 19) and four days after the second phase (April 26) had concluded. In the letter, Kharge questioned the reason for the delay as well as why the poll body did not issue a clarification for the same despite receiving criticism from political parties and activists.
Furthermore, Kharge pointed out the discrepancies in the numbers of voter turnout in the first two phases released by the ECI. The final voter turnout for the first phase was reported to be 60% as of 7 pm on April 19, while the second phase registered a voter turnout of 60.96%. However, on April 20, the numbers from the first phase increased to 65.5%, and on April 27, the second phase’s voter turnout increased to 66.7%. On April 30, the figures changed to 66.14% in phase one (an increase of 5.5%) and 66.71% in phase two (an increase of over 5.74%).
Moreover, he pointed out that data regarding each parliamentary constituency and each assembly constituency remains unpublished. Kharge stated, “If the voter turnout data was published within 24 hours of voting along with the crucial figures, then we would have known if the increase (of ~5%) had been witnessed across constituencies? Or only in constituencies where the ruling regime had not performed well in the 2019 elections?”
Questioning the “glaring mismanagement in basics in conducting the elections,” Kharge asked what was preventing the EC from publishing the data regarding voter turnout for each polling station when, as per the ECI, the polling agents of the candidates have the exact same data as well.
What The Election Commission Replied
In a press release, the EC denied all allegations made by the Congress President and stated that it was waiting for “Index Forms” from all 542 constituencies before it could release the final numbers. The EVM votes and postal ballots counted are used to prepare Form 21E, where the breakup of voter turnout, including the tendered votes for the constituency, is counted to achieve the final voter percentage of each constituency by the returning officer.
The press release stated that Form 21E is the return of election (specified under Rule 64 of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961), for which the lone authority is the concerned returning officer (RO). The Index Card is prepared by the RO to release the voting data (polled and counted) after the results are declared. Citing the 2019 elections, the EC said that the poll body had directed all Ros on March 26 that year to send the Index cards within 15 days after the results were declared.
“In earlier elections, it used to take months to collect such authenticated election data from all the ROs. Even in 2014, it took between 2 to 3 months after the declaration of results to collect and collate such data in authenticated form. Due to the innovative IT initiatives taken by the Commission this time, the final data on votes counted has been made available within a few days of declaration of results,” said the EC.
The poll authority added, “The reconciliation of voters’ data for all PCs have been completed in all states and the Index Forms of all 542 PCs are expected to reach ECI from Returning Officers shortly, which after compilation, shall be immediately be made Public by the Election Commission.”
The commission also stated that the “provisional voter turnout data reported on ECI website is only the tentative number of voters and not the final nos. therefore it is incorrect inference to find Ghost voters when there are none.”
What Happened In 2019?
According to journalist Poonam Agarwal, following her story in The Quint in May 2019, the EC took down the data of the final votes polled in the first four phases. The EC released the final data after six months (in October). Agarwal then questioned if the results of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections were declared based on provisional data, considering the time it took the EC to release the data.
The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the NGO Common Cause had challenged the Supreme Court to investigate the matter regarding the alleged discrepancies in the voter-turnout data. The petition also highlighted the “alarming trend” of “declaring the election results even before the authenticated election data is released.”
Based on the petition, vote discrepancies were higher than the winning margin by over six seats. For instance, in Anantnag EVM, votes exceeded the voter turnout by 29,746. The winning margin was only 6,676 votes, reports The Wire.
The ADR has sought the help of the top court once again to order the EC to upload the number of votes recorded in all polling stations after each phase was concluded.
What Does The Latest Data State?
According to the latest data by the EC on Thursday, the total turnout in the first four phases has been recorded at 66.95%, with 45.10 crore voters having cast their votes so far. The data regarding the voter percentage in each constituency is yet to be released.
