Saturday, 05 Oct, 2024
By: Sutanu Guru
Source: Getty
In a majority of the seats, the vote count as per the EVM is lower than the actual number of votes cast. In others, the official count is higher than the votes cast. In all, the total discrepancy according to ADR is close to 600,000 votes.
Well known Association for Democratic Reforms has just released a 51 page report that claims that discrepancies have been noticed in the actual numbers of votes cast in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the vote count as shown through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). According to the report, discrepancies have been tabulated for 538 Lok Sabha constituencies. In a majority, the vote count as per the EVM is lower than the actual number of votes cast. In others, the official count is higher than the votes cast. In all, the total discrepancy according to ADR is close to 600,000 votes. Since many opposition parties and leaders and activists have been questioning the sanctity of the electoral process, this new report will certainly lead to more scrutiny of the practices and processes followed by the Election Commission of India.
Doubts have been raised about the efficacy and integrity of the EVMs ever since they were introduced in India. There have been many attempts made through petitions in the Supreme Court to abandon the EVMs and go back to the old system of paper ballots. However, on each occassion the top court has rejected such petitions. It has only asked the Election Commission of India to physically cross verify 5% of the votes polled in EVMs with the VVPAT or the print outs that come out after each vote is registered in an EVM. The discrepancies between the EVM and the VVPAT have been so statistically insignificant that most objective analysts have stopped doubting the efficacy of the EVM.
Yet, the ADR is a credible organisation that has spent a lot of effort over the decades to reform and improve electoral practices and the conduct of elections in India. It is largely the efforts of the ADR that eventually led to the law that bars convicted criminals (sentenced to more than two years) from contesting elections in India. Given that background, IndiaTracker decided to quickly do a data analysis to find out how serious the discrepancies pointed out by the ADR were and if they did have an impact on the final outcome of results. IndiaTracker picked up 10 Lok Sabha constituencies from the ADR report where the difference between the votes polled in the EVMs and the votes counted were in the thousands. It mapped those numbers with the victory margins in each constituency.
The conclusion: As the accompanying chart shows, even when the discrepancy is more than 10,000 votes, the victory margins are multiple times higher than the discrepancy. For instance, the discrepancy in the Tiruvallur constituency was about 17,000 votes. Would that have impacted the final result? Not at al since the victory margin was about 550,000 votes. The election process always needs constant reform and improvement. But the new report by ADR doesntreally indicate a crisis that would question the integrity of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
