X: @the_news_21
Mumbai: Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) president Prakash Ambedkar has in a letter to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Maharashtra on December 6, remarked that the ‘late’ figures in voting are very surprising, but also raise questions on the electoral process, which is meant to be fair, inducement free and transparent.
The VBA chief in his letter stated that their faith in the recently concluded exercise (Maharashtra Assembly elections) has shaken and depreciated. He further remarked that they have reasons to believe that the elections were not inducement free and transparent.
Citing a recent interview of a former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of the Election Commission of India (ECI), Ambedkar stated that the former CEC has raised serious concerns over the wide variations between the provisional voter turnout figures and the final data in the Maharashtra Vidhan Sabha elections.
Ambedkar stated that the voting percentage at 5 pm (on November 20) was 58.22 percent, and the final voter turnout, released the counting, saw it go up by an astonishing 7.28 percent to 66.05 percent.
He added that the gross number of voters would be 5,64,88,024 at 5 pm on November 20, by 11.30 pm the voting percentage had gone up to 65.02%, the gross figure of which would be 6,30,85,732.
Ambedkar further remarked “between 5 pm and 11.30 pm, the total increase in gross number in total votes polled is 65,97,708 – almost 66 lakhs! What is more surprising that a few hours before the counting, again, there was an increase of 9,99,359 in the total votes polled! Cumulatively, from the 5 pm on November 20 to 10 pm on November 22, there was an increase of 75,97,067 votes polled.”
The VBA chief said “I also sought answers to 3 questions I had asked —
- the time it takes for a voter to cast his/her/their vote;
- whether the District Election Officer/Returning Officer (DEO, RO) and the Supervisor recorded the number of votes polled between 5 PM to 6 PM on November 20, and if so, the details thereof; and
- whether the District Election Officer/Returning Officer recorded the number of tokens issued to voters standing in queue at 5:59 PM on November 20, and if so, the details thereof?
It is important that our questions are answered and our concerns are addressed as they will appreciate the depreciated and shaken faith in the electoral process and conduct of the Election Commission of India (ECI).”
