Maha elections: ECI says no info on pre-numbered slips issued during assembly, LS polls
National Herald January 18, 2025 03:39 AM

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has stated that it has no information about the total number of constituency and segment-wise pre-numbered slips issued by presiding officers of all polling stations in Maharashtra during both the assembly elections held in November 2024 and the Lok Sabha elections in April-May 2024.

The ECI's statement came in response to a right to information (RTI) request submitted by Venkatesh Nayak, director, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, in which he pointed out that as per procedure outlined in paragraph 1.12, read along with paragraph 7.1.2, of the 2023 edition of the handbook for presiding officers published on the ECI website, the presiding officers should have information about the constituency-wise total number of pre-numbered slips issued by them during both assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

However, the ECI said, “lt is to inform you that information as sought by you is not available in the Commission.”

Nayak emphasised that the ECI’s response is “bewildering, to say the least”, as the commission, being the apex election management body, is vested with both Constitutional authority and statutory powers to conduct elections.

“They are required to be in full control of the electoral machinery, and that includes information flows from the constituency level to Nirvachan Sadan through the CEOs, ROs, and election observers. It is unimaginable that the information which I sought has not been reported to the ECI. Even if one were to concede, for the sake of argument, that their reply is accurate, the RTI Act empowers them to request the information from the source where it is available in order to decide whether or not it should be disclosed. At the very least, they can transfer the application to such offices for disposal at the click of a button,” maintained Nayak.

Paragraph 7.1.2 states that “a few minutes before the hour appointed for closing the poll, announce to all those within the limits of the polling station who are waiting to vote that they will be allowed to cast their votes in turn. Distribute slips signed by you in full to all such electors, which should be serially numbered from Serial No. 1 onwards, according to the number of electors standing in the queue at that hour.

"The last elector should be given Slip No. 1, and the next voter in front of him/her should receive Slip No. 2, and so on. Continue the poll even beyond the closing hour until all these electors have cast their votes. Depute police or other staff to ensure that no one is allowed to join the queue after the appointed closing hour. This can be effectively managed if the distribution of slips to all such electors is commenced from the last elector standing in the queue and proceeded backwards towards its head”.

Annexure 52 of the handbook explains that the presiding officer’s diary should contain a variety of details about the polling station, including materials supplied and used, machines supplied and used, polling agents present, voter turnout details, how many were allowed to cast ‘tendered votes’, the number of challenged votes, and the number of votes cast in the polling station during the following time slots: 7-9 am, 9-11 am, 11 am-1 pm, 1-3 pm, and 3-5 pm. The diary should also record the number of slips issued at the close of the polling hour to electors standing in queue.

This information is also recorded in the report of the sector officer, whose format is provided in annexure 6 of the sector officers’ handbook.

According to data from the ECI, the number of registered voters for the state elections held on 20 November 2024 was 97,793,350 (nearly 97.80 crore), with 64,592,508 (about 64.60 crore) individuals casting their votes. In comparison, during the Lok Sabha election, the number of registered voters was 92,890,445 (92.90 core approx), and the votes cast totalled 56,969,710 (56.97 crore approx).

Based on these figures, the number of registered voters in the state increased by nearly 50 lakh (49,02,905), while the number of votes cast went up by over 75 lakh (76,22,7980).

The Congress party had filed a complaint with the ECI, but the latter rejected the charges, stating that the additions were legitimate. The party had also raised concerns about the surge in voter turnout in Maharashtra on polling day, calling for an explanation from the ECI.

In a letter to the ECI, the Congress highlighted an “inexplicable increase” in voter turnout between 5 pm and the final voter percentage announced by the ECI at 11.30 pm on the day of polling. The Congress also pointed out that, of the 50 assembly seats where there was an average increase of 50,000 voters, the ruling Mahayuti secured victory in 47.

On the day of the inauguration of the new Congress office on 15 January, Congress MP and Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi reiterated that his party was uncomfortable with the manner in which the ECI was conducting elections. “I said very clearly that the large number of new voters, almost a crore, who suddenly appeared between the Lok Sabha and assembly elections, is problematic,” Gandhi said.

In December, the ECI clarified that the increase in voter turnout from 5 pm to 11.45 pm was “normal”, with Maharashtra’s chief electoral officer, S. Chockalingam explaining that the 7 per cent increase in voter turnout in the last hour of polling for the assembly election was not a surge, as claimed by the Opposition, but an "average" process.

However, the ECI has repeatedly declined to take action on many RTIs that Nayak filed last year. He explained that public disclosure of not only the data about the tokens distributed, but also the two-hourly voter turnout figures recorded by presiding officers and sector officers, is crucial to determine whether the ECI's final voter turnout figures are accurate.

“Merely disclosing Form 17C data will not help clarify voter turnout trends that occurred on polling day. Transparency advocates must press for the disclosure of the granular data. The ECI can do itself a favour by disclosing the two-hourly voter turnout data and the number of tokens distributed before the close of polling. This will help clear all doubt about the final voter turnout figures,” said Nayak.

© Copyright @2025 LIDEA. All Rights Reserved.