No active petition over difference in voter turnout: ECI
A poll panel official said 92 election petitions have been filed challenging the Lok Sabha results in 79 parliamentary constituencies.
None of the election petitions challenging the validity of poll results in 79 Lok Sabha constituencies has raised a question over the difference in voter turnout figures released at 7pm on polling day and those reported the following day, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said on Sunday.
A poll panel official said 92 election petitions have been filed challenging the Lok Sabha results announced on June 4.
“False campaign is being run by some (other than candidates) in furtherance of design to discredit largest elections ever held in the history of mankind in most transparent manner involving candidates/ stakeholders at every stage of elections. Unfounded attempts are made to compare approx turnout fig at 7pm on pollday (when many PS might be closing poll &/or voters waiting in queue)with ‘End of Poll’ turnout available a day after poll day. Electoral data & outcomes are strictly as per statutory forms &procedures u/RPA. While legitimate means to challenge an electoral outcome by a candidate or elector is through an Election Petition u/ RPA 1951, no EP is reportedly filed on such grounds. A lesser number of EPs have been reportedly filed in 79 PCs in GE 2024 as against 138 EPs in GE 2019,” the EC said in a series of posts on X.
These posts were in response to two reports released over the last two weeks that raised concerns about discrepancy in voter turnout figures released by the ECI on the day of polling and a couple of days later, a concern that dogged the polling body throughout the seven phases of polling this general election season.
One of the reports, released by Vote for Democracy (VFD) and titled ‘Report: Conduct of Lok Sabha Elections 2024 — Analysis of ‘Vote Manipulation’ and ‘Misconduct during Voting and Counting’, raised questions about whether the people’s mandate had been stolen in the 2024 general elections. The report argued that the 79 seats across 15 states, where the NDA/BJP coalition won, benefitted from “unexplained Voter Dumping or Increase in percentage of Votes”. HT has asked ECI for a list of the parliamentary constituencies where the election petitions have been filed.
The VFD also raised concerns that in multiple places, the number of votes polled via the EVMs was lower than the number of votes counted.
The other report, released by the Association for Democratic Reforms on July 29 and titled ‘Discrepancies between the votes cast and the votes counted in the 2024 Lok Sabha election: Multiple Perspectives’, highlighted the discrepancies “found in the total number of EVM votes cast and total actual number of EVM votes counted”.
“In addition, the inordinate delay in the release of final voter turnout data, absence of disaggregated constituency and polling station figures in absolute numbers and whether the elections results were declared based on final reconciled data has raised concerns and public suspicion regarding the correctness of the election results,” ADR’s press release read.
Both the VFD and ADR have called on the ECI to address the concerns raised.