New Delhi, March 31 Political activists raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process in the country on Tuesday, questioning the reported surge in voter turnout a day after the polls and the number of voters deleted from electoral rolls during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
At a panel discussion here, they presented detailed arguments about the voter turnout figures and what they termed as the "overall decline" in the perception of impartiality of the Election Commission.
Activist Parkala Prabhakar, citing official data from the Election Commission, questioned the sharp rise in voter turnout in the final hours of polling during the 2024 Andhra Pradesh Assembly elections.
He highlighted that the turnout increased from 68.12 per cent at 8 pm to 80.66 per cent in the final count, with a significant portion of votes reportedly cast between 11:45 pm and 2 am in about 3,500 booths.
Arguing that the pace of voting implied "roughly one vote every 20 seconds," he said such a rate was difficult to reconcile with the procedural requirements at polling stations, including voter verification and the use of electronic voting machines.
Citing the 2023 delimitation exercise in Assam, Yogendra Yadav alleged that constituency boundaries appeared to be drawn in ways that segregated communities and altered electoral outcomes.
He claimed instances where areas were reconfigured to "consolidate specific voter groups," calling the process a deviation from established neutral practices.
He also expressed concerns over the SIR exercise, calling it the "largest exercise of disenfranchisement in the history of the world."
Echoing concerns on delimitation, former CEC SY Qureshi said the process in India has traditionally been transparent and institutionalised. "In my six years in the Election Commission, I had never even heard the word 'gerrymandering' in the Indian context," he remarked, while acknowledging that the presentations had raised troubling questions.
At the same time, Qureshi pointed to the "logistical improbability" of large-scale manipulation. "In every booth, there are at least five officials and supervisors. For 3,500 booths, nearly 35,000 people would have to be taken into confidence. How is that possible?" he said, adding that the silence of polling agents across parties raised further questions.
On allegations of EVM tampering, he emphasised the robustness of safeguards. "The machine is sealed with a unique paper seal, signatures of agents are taken, and any tampering would tear the seal. So how is swapping possible? I don't understand," he said.
However, senior advocate Prashant Bhushan raised concerns over the reliability of electronic voting systems and counting processes, arguing that safeguards were inadequate.
"When software is loaded into EVMs before elections, nobody knows what is inside; it can potentially be manipulated," he claimed, while criticising the limited verification of VVPAT slips.
Senior journalist and political commentator Rajesh Mahapatra mentioned the assembly polls in Odisha, which were held along with the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, and pointed to striking parallels with Andhra Pradesh elections, noting that both states recorded an "almost identical" gap between initial and final voter turnout figures in the 2024 elections.
"In Andhra Pradesh, it was 12.6 per cent, in Odisha it was 12.5 per cent -- almost identical," he said.
Such variations went far beyond the typical 1 to 2 per cent revisions seen historically.
In August 20204, the Election Commission had dismissed an analysis by a 'citizens' platform' that claimed "unusually big" difference between voter turnout figures declared initially and the final figures in the Lok Sabha elections, and said a "false campaign" is being run to discredit the polls.
The poll panel had noted that no election petition had been filed on such grounds.
In a series of posts on X, the EC had said, “False campaign is being run by some (other than candidates) in furtherance of design to discredit the largest elections ever held in the history of mankind in the most transparent manner involving candidates/ stakeholders at every stage of elections.”
It had said that “unfounded attempts” were made to compare approximate turnout figures at 7 pm on poll day, when many polling stations might be closing poll or voters were waiting in queue, with ‘End of Poll’ turnout available a day after poll day.
The EC had said electoral data and outcomes are strictly as per statutory forms and procedures under the electoral law.
“While legitimate means to challenge an electoral outcome by a candidate or elector is through an election petition, no election petition is reportedly filed on such grounds,” it had said.
The Congress had cited a report by ‘Vote for Democracy’, which had raised questions about the hike in the Lok Sabha voting turnout percentages, and had urged the EC to address these concerns.