ECI Should Clarify Any Doubts Over Poll Data, Says Former CEC SY Quraishi

Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi has urged the Election Commission of India to clarify alleged discrepancies in the 2024 Lok Sabha poll results. This appeal follows two recent reports indicating inconsistencies in the election data. Quraishi stressed that transparency and accountability from the ECI are crucial to maintaining public trust in the electoral process.

New Delhi:The Election Commission of India should come clean over alleged discrepancies in the Lok Sabha 2024 poll results, former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi said on Saturday amid two recent reports citing differences in data.

“If questions related to data discrepancy are being raised, the Election Commission of India must come clean over the issue. The EC has all the data from the Electronic Voting Machines and the Postal Ballots. Any discrepancy may occur in final data due to postal ballots, but it is for the EC to clarify. Transparency is good for democracy,” Quraishi told ETV Bharat.

According to a recent report by the NGO Association for Democratic Reforms, there was a data discrepancy of 5,89,691 votes across 538 parliamentary constituencies in the 2024 Lok Sabha election results.

Out of this, votes counted less than votes polled were 5,54,598 across 362 constituencies and votes counted more than votes polled were 35,093 across 176 constituencies. Another report by NGO Vote for Democracy claimed there were discrepancies of nearly five crore votes between the initial votes counted and the final votes counted and this could have helped the NDA/BJP gain 76 seats, which they would have lost in the absence of such a hike. In particular, the report flagged that there was a 12 per cent hike in votes polled in Odisha, where the BJP did exceptionally well, and in Andhra Pradesh, where its ally TDP swept the polls.

Both the reports sought the EC’s intervention in resolving the issues flagged by them, particularly related to the EVMs and had been cited by the opposition parties as well.

Over the past five years, the opposition parties had been flagging their concerns over the EVMs demanding a shift to the ballot paper and even asking for 100 per cent VVPAT slips matching with the EVM data for cross-verification of votes polled, but the EC had rejected their plea. Later, the Supreme Court had allowed for 10 per cent VVPAT slips matching to ensure fair play.

According to the former CEC, he was a supporter of the EVMs, but noted that if any doubts persisted about the EVMs or the poll data in public, the EC had the capability to do it.

“I have always been a supporter of the EVMs and have faced flak personally for taking that stand. The data stored in the EVM cannot change even if you count the result several times. I am aware that the opposition has been raising doubts over the EVMs since 2019. Again, it is for the EC to clarify any doubts. The 2024 national polls have been concluded and nothing can be done about it now, but there must be some kind of review and if possible, the correctives should be implemented. I noticed several common people had expressed doubts over the EVMs. Such doubts are not good in a democracy. The EC may take some more time and publish the final data rather than staying silent,” said Quraishi.

The former CEC noted that some of the poll process-related issues flagged by the opposition parties had reached the Supreme Court, but still, there was no final clarification yet.