The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday said that it is not possible to alter the actual voter turnout figures, as detailed information about voter turnout is documented in statutory form 17-C, which is available to the authorised agents of candidates at the time the polls close at each polling station.
“The Commission is not legally bound to publish any voter turnout data at aggregate level of a constituency, state or phase of election because voter turnout is recorded at polling station level in statutory form 17-C prepared by the presiding officer and signed by polling agents of candidates. The presiding officer provides a true copy of account of votes recorded” in form 17-C (part-1) to each polling agent,” the Commission said.
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The ECI’s response which came on a Congress party representation regarding concerns over voter data anomalies for 2024 Maharashtra assembly polls is also relevant for Haryana considering allegations of “gross mismatch” in the figures of votes polled and counted for the 2024 Haryana assembly polls by a committee headed by Congress leader, Karan Dalal. Dalal, who heads the party committee set up to investigate alleged malpractices and manipulations in polls, had on Monday accused the EC of not being transparent.
“The figures and trends appearing in the voter turnout app were by design or by genuine misunderstanding being utilised to create doubts about credibility of the statutory poll stages and processes,” ECI said in a statement.
Errors can lead to mismatch in data: ECI
The Commission though admitted that there could be a mismatch between the number of votes polled and the votes counted in an election due to standard protocol of non-counting of control units of a polling station when the victory margin is more that the votes polled in that polling station, inclusion of mock poll data if not deleted from EVM, non-deduction of test vote data from EVM count, wrong reporting of data and data entry errors.
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Explaining the voter turnout data, the ECI said data entered in the system between 5 pm to 5.30pm is an interim data of approximate voter turnout. This 5pm data is bound to increase because the voters in queue up to 5pm or the notified time of close of poll are allowed to cast their vote. After 5pm, the polling parties have to perform multifarious duties related to the close of polls. Thereafter, updated turnout data starts reflecting on the app again from 7pm onwards. These votes will be reflected in the data only when the polling parties arrive at the receiving centre and submit the machine and election papers and actual data is fed, the EC clarified.
The purpose of publication of voter turnout data at aggregate level is to bring more transparency in elections through public disclosures. The voter turnout is the sum of electors who have voted in an election in a constituency and is represented as a percentage of total electors in a constituency, the ECI said.
The Commission said the publication of data of voter turnout during the course of election is one of the suo-moto facilitative transparency measures in addition to the sanctity of the decentralised statutory design at constituency level to collect, maintain voter turnout data, share it with candidates and matching of the same during the counting process.
“The voter turnout app captures two-hourly approximate turnout trend in percentage terms gathered by the returning officer on the poll day through the sector officers. The app is a non-statutory measure which displays the approximate voter turnout in percentage terms for a constituency, district, state, phase etc., purely for facilitative purpose to understand a broad trend of electoral participation in a particular geographical area,” the ECI said.
The ECI said that the accuracy of voter turnout data was purely dependent on the information received from polling stations from time to time on poll day by returning officers. The mode of collection of data in different states is different depending on technology, connectivity, terrain, movement plans etc.