New Delhi: Results for the Lok Sabha 2024 elections are out, but the controversy around the election process persists.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, I first reported at The Quint on the discrepancies found between the data for the EVM votes polled and EVM votes counted.
The matter was also heard in the Supreme Court five years later in 2024, based on a petition filed by the Association for Democratic Reform in 2019.
During the hearing, the Election Commission (EC) rejected all claims of discrepancies found in multiple parliamentary constituencies (PCs) during the 2019 elections, saying the petitioners and the media had considered data on the approximate number of votes polled published on the Election Commission’s App, and that was why their data did not match with the actual number of votes counted.
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections data shows discrepancies in almost all PCs. A close look at EC data from 543 PCs shows that except for a few PCs like Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep and Attingal in Kerala, the number of EVM votes counted differs from that of EVM votes polled.
In more than 140 PCs, the number of EVM votes counted surpassed the number of EVM votes polled. The difference ranged between two votes in one case and 3,811 votes in another.
There are also cases of fewer votes than those that claimed to have been polled, being counted eventually. In those PCs where the number of EVM votes counted was less than the number of EVM votes polled, the highest difference was -16,791 votes.
This story was originally published in thewire.com. Read the full story here.
