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Journalism of Courage
As voting for the third phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024 started on Tuesday, Opposition parties questioned the delay in releasing data for the voting percentage in the first two phases by the Election Commission of India.
In a letter to INDIA bloc parties, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge asked if this delay was an “attempt to doctor the final results”. He urged the INDIA bloc parties to “collectively, unitedly and unequivocally raise our voice against such discrepancies, for our only objective is to protect the culture of a vibrant Democracy and the Constitution”.
Opposition parties had questioned the final voter turnout for the first two phases of Lok Sabha elections 2024 which the Election Commission of India released on April 30. The data was released 11 days after the first phase polling on April 19 and four days after the second phase on April 26.
Kharge said “the credibility of the Election Commission of India (ECI) is at an all time low” and added, “It is in public domain on how the ECI, perhaps for the first time in history, delayed the release of the final voting percentages of the First and Second phase of the Lok Sabha elections.”
Kharge said,“it is extremely disconcerting to know through various media reports that even the final registered voters list from the Third phase onwards is also not released.”
Based on the data provided by the poll panel, the voter turnout for the first phase of polling was 66.14 per cent, which is around 4 percentage points lower than the first phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. Similarly, the turnout for the second phase was 66.71 per cent, indicating a decrease of approximately 3 percentage points compared to the 2019 elections.
Kharge asked why the final voter turnout increased by 5.5 per cent from the conclusion of voting, at 7 pm on April 19, to the delayed release of voter turnout data on April 30. Similarly, for the second phase, there was an increase of around 5.74 per cent from the conclusion of voting at 7 pm on April 26 to the delayed release of data four days later, Kharge said in the letter.
“All these developments cast a dark shadow on the functioning of the Election Commission of India – an institution built with the collective efforts of the Indian State and its people,” the Congress chief said in his letter.
He added, “The inordinate delay in the release of the final voting percentages for the First and Second phases raises serious doubts on the quality of data. In my electoral life of 52 years, I have never witnessed such a high increment of voting percentages, in the final published data, that we now assume came from the later hours of voting on the polling days.”
The letter raised questions about “what changed this time”, as the ECI was used to publishing voter turnout data within 24 hours of polling. “Why has the Commission failed to issue any clarification to justify the delay, despite there being repeatedly questioned by political parties as well as political activists? Is there an issue with the EVMs?” asked Kharge in his letter.
“We all know how PM Modi and the BJP are visibly flustered and frustrated by the voting trends and their receding electoral fortunes in the first two phases. The entire nation knows that an autocratic regime, drunk with power, can go to any extent to stay in the chair,” he said, as 93 seats across 11 states and a Union Territory are voting in the third phase of Lok Sabha polls on Tuesday.
Communist Party Of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury had written a letter to Chief Election Commissioner of India Rajiv Kumar, expressing “surprise” over the “inordinate and unexplained delay” in the final figures for the percentage of votes cast during the first two phases of the Lok Sabha elections.
“Unfortunately, the ECI has not come out with any explanation for the cause of this undue delay. What goes unanswered is also a surge of 6 per cent from the initial figures that the ECI put out and the final figure. While it is plausible that there may be a slight variation between the initial and the final figures, this variation of six percent is unusual and raises some suspicion. Also, while the percentages have been disclosed, the voting figures (number of votes polled) have not yet been provided,” Yechury said in his letter on May 3.
Kharge also asked why the poll panel did not release the figures for votes polled in each parliamentary constituency and the respective assembly constituencies.
Yechury said in the interests of “transparency and credibility of the process, it is incumbent that the ECI clear the doubts that have arisen in this regard”.
“It should provide state-wise, constituency-wise and assembly segment wise break-up of the initial and final percentage as also the number of votes cast. Further, it also needs to be clarified as to how much under which category this rise has taken place – EVMs, Postal Ballots, votes at Facilitation Centres for personnel on duty etc,” he wrote in the letter.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) also wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner of India, asking him to “urgently furnish constituency-wise precise voter turnout figures” for the first two phases. The party also said that an “explanation and clarification” should be given for the delay in releasing the data.
