New Delhi: The 18th Lok Sabha elections were marked by widespread allegations against the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) partisan conduct by both opposition parties and civil society members alike. The ECI’s failure to conduct regular press conferences, address code of conduct violations and ignore reports of voters’ suppression and EVM malfunctioning amplified the already polarised environment around the fairness of the Lok Sabha elections that were being held in the clear absence of a political level-playing field.
A month after the results, Vote For Democracy (VFD), a Maharashtra-based citizens’ platform, has further muddied the waters by making some sensational claims that may raise concerns about the conduct of the ECI.
VFD, apart from pointing out some glaring loopholes in the election process, has made three significant assertions.
One, it has claimed that the difference between approximate votes polled shared by the ECI on polling days at around 8 pm and the final voter turnout is nearly 5 crores. “…4,65,46,885 to be precise,” a report released by VFD said, contending that the sharp increase in the number of total votes cast doubts on the fairness of the election process. The VFD said that the figure was arrived at after a careful reading of “phase-wise extrapolation in number of votes”.
The report claimed that while in the previous elections, the percentage increase between the estimated voter turnout on the evening of the polling day and the final turnout was approximately 1%, in the 18th Lok Sabha elections the variation was in the range of “3.2% to 6.32%” across all the seven phases. It said that the figure was a “staggering 12.54% in Andhra Pradesh and 12.48% in Odisha”, even as the cumulative average of the increase in the final voter turnout is 4.72%.
“…ECI has, so far, not been forthcoming with any credible reasons for the hike,” the report said.
Two, the VFD claimed that the sharp increase in the final voter turnout was greater than the margin of victory of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in 79 seats across 15 states, many of which were narrowly won by the NDA candidates. The report said that 79 seats included 18 in Odisha; 11 in Maharashtra; 10 in West Bengal; seven in Andhra Pradesh; six in Karnataka; five each in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan; three each in Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana; two in Assam; and one each in Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, and Kerala.
The VFD, therefore, urged the ECI to allay the doubts and lay out reasons for the sharp hike in voter turnout transparently.
The report, however, does not go into the number of seats where opposition candidates, too, may have won with smaller margins than the increase in the final turnouts. A comparative study of both the contrasting scenarios would have made VFD’s assertion distinctive.
Three, the report also claimed that the NDA candidates won by very thin margins in 18 seats across 10 states. In all these constituencies, serious concerns were raised by both civil society members and opposition candidates regarding alleged malpractice and EVM malfunctioning during voting and the counting process.
Some of these seats include Saran in Bihar, Mumbai North-West in Maharashtra, and Farrukhabad, Bansgaon, and Phulpur in Uttar Pradesh where NDA candidates won by razor-thin margins. The report goes on to point out various incidents of voter suppression, EVM malfunctioning, contentious transfers of important officials in opposition-ruled states during the elections, alleged misconduct of returning officers, unattended complaints raised by the opposition and similar doubts raised during the election campaign by many observers.
The VFD report was authored by former bureaucrat M.G. Devasahayam and activist Dr. Pyare Lal Garg. The VFD was founded by activists Teesta Setalvad, Dolphy D’Souza, Father Frazer Mascarenhas and Khalil Deshmukh.
The report noted, “While we do not doubt the credibility of the ECI, its conduct during this Lok Sabha election has made us, as citizens and voters, seriously concerned about the fair outcome of the electoral process.” While releasing the report in Mumbai on July 22, the VFD team called for “an independent investigation under autonomous supervision” into all the doubts and allegations raised during the elections.
Section 80 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, allows a candidate or a voter to challenge the outcome of an election within 45 days of the declaration of the results.
“The question that is being posed is has the 2024 mandate been stolen from the people? It is for the ECI to respond to the issues raised in this report with detailed and credible responses to ensure that faith in the free and fair election process is restored,” the report said.
The Wire has asked for a response to the report from the ECI. The story will be updated when it responds.
