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Mumbai: Senior lawyer, Bar Vinod Tiwari in a representation made to the Election Commission of India (ECI) has questioned the latter over the inordinate delay in declaring the polling percentage data for the first two phases of polling in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Calling upon the poll body to uphold transparency, he stressed upon the need for taking corrective steps to allay the concerns raised by everyone over the transparency in the poll body. Bar Tiwari has moved a simultaneous petition over the issue before the Supreme Court of India (SCI) as well.
Bar Vinod Tiwari filed the representation as the national president of an NGO ‘Council for Protection of Rights’ (CPR) which is working for the cause of the public at large including building of trust & confidence in Election Commission of India, being an independent constitutional body to protect democracy.
In his representation, Bar Tiwari wanted to know as to how come it takes several days to announce the data to know how many votes were cast polling booth wise in every assembly segment in Parliamentary Constituencies? The senior lawyer has urged the ECI to take corrective action and immediate steps.
The CPR national president in his representation to the ECI pointed out that it has been a routine system that after polling, the polling officers’ teams go to the Assembly Constituency ARO’s office and after delivering all the records and ballot boxes to the strong room within 5/6 hours, they used to be relieved to go home.
Bar Tiwari stated that during the on-going Lok Sabha elections, all the voting records were on the computerised system. So, to know how many votes were cast, the data is expected to be available immediately the very next day! There must not be any difficulty as 24 hrs is more than sufficient, he added.
He further remarked, “but in this year’s Lok Sabha Elections, the period of 4/5 to 10/12 days have been taken to announce this data as to know How many votes were cast? Such data was never announced even after so many days in the first two phases of completion of voting / polling!”
“It is surprising that new statistics are announced every day. The delay is really anguishing to know such a big time is taken in simple addition and subtraction in today’s machine age! This might trigger suspicion in the minds of people at large, it is very unfortunate and painstaking!”, further remarked Bar Vinod Tiwari.
The CPR national president added, “Kindly appreciate that on the one hand, from the Supreme Court of India to the common voters / electors, all have reasonable expectations that the Election Commission of the Country should be transparent. So, how come it takes several days to announce the statistics of polling as to how many votes have been cast? This is now a mute question and there seems, no answer to this, as the element of transparent ECI working is missing!”
He further argued that the print & electronic media, time & again, are raising this issue, as how come it takes several days to announce this data to know how many votes were cast! Bar Vinod Tiwari argued that there is no transparent system adopted by ECI in these General Elections, it’s voters app, elector’s app all proved useless and therefore, we strongly feel that to build the faith & confidence of the all concerned at large, the ECI must take immediate corrective action in the matter without loss of time.
