Some constituencies, a TNIE report said, had recorded a variation from seven to 13.5 percentage points between the provisional and the final data, leading to serious concerns.
New Delhi: The very first phase of voting in the Lok Sabha 2024 election has led to questions on the Election Commission’s performance thanks to a significant difference in turnout figures for Tamil Nadu within the course of four hours, which is roughly the time that the poll body took to release figures.
According to a report by The New Indian Express, the Chief Electoral Officer, Satyabrata Sahoo, released the provisional figures of voter turnout for the state, on April 19, at 7.30pm. It was 72.09%.
Within four hours, at 12 am on April 20, the EC had revised the figures to 69.46%.
Some constituencies, the report said, had recorded a variation from seven to 13.5 percentage points, leading to serious concerns.
The report says that the earlier figure, from the poll day, was based on projections from data of a sample of polling stations. The figures of early April 20 were based on actual data from all polling booths, collected and registered by the Returning Officers of the assembly segments on the EC’s online portal Encore.
A report on Deccan Chronicle notes that the Chief Electoral Officer cancelled two press conferences on Saturday, the first at 11 am and the other at 1 pm. Finally, he announced the same figures of 12 am at 7.30 pm.
The final booth-wise turnout figures were not released until Saturday night, TNIE reported, with Sahoo noting during the presser that data entry for each polling station was still underway.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.