In a bid to enhance transparency, the Association for Democratic Reforms has approached the Supreme Court, urging the Election Commission of India to promptly unveil scanned, clear copies of Form 17C Part- I, detailing the votes cast across all polling stations. This disclosure, including authenticated vote counts, is requested within a 48-hour window following the culmination of polling.
The plea, presented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, underscores concerns surrounding the delay in releasing final voter turnout figures. Notably, the discrepancy in the Election Commission’s press release dated April 30, 2024, which saw a substantial revision (exceeding 5%), coupled with the absence of detailed constituency and polling station data, has triggered doubts and public skepticism regarding data accuracy.
Comparing the figures from April 30 with earlier data reveals a significant surge, approximately 6% for Phase I and 5.75% for Phase II, further fueling doubts among voters.
Highlighting the necessity for transparent data dissemination, the plea stresses the importance of disclosing not just percentages but also absolute figures of votes polled. Without this crucial information, the public’s ability to scrutinize discrepancies between votes cast at booths and those counted by EVMs is severely hampered.
The application urges the Election Commission to furnish tabulated, polling station-wise data in absolute figures following each phase of polling in the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Additionally, it seeks constituency-wise figures of voter turnout in absolute numbers. The directive extends to uploading scanned copies of Form 17C Part- II, containing candidate-wise results, upon the compilation of 2024 Lok Sabha election results.