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The Election Commission of India (ECI)’s explanation on December 24 in response to the Congress party’s charges regarding voter turnout data in the recent Assembly elections is unlikely to allay growing concerns regarding the integrity of the election process. It was on December 20, on the recommendations of the ECI, that the Centre had amended the Conduct of Election Rules to restrict public access to poll documents except for those that are specifically mentioned in them. The ECI has also said it does not want to share CCTV footage of the booth, citing privacy and security reasons. This change in the rules happened after the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the ECI to share all documents related to the Haryana Assembly elections, including CCTV footage, to a private citizen. The court ruled that this was permissible under 93(2) of the Rules which allowed public access to all “papers” which were not specifically barred. The amended rule now says that only those “papers” that are specified in it are open to public inspection. For an institution that is so central to the functioning of democracy, and yet facing an unprecedented challenge to its credibility, less secrecy and more transparency must be the way forward. Sadly, the ECI is falling short on this count, and damaging its own credibility.
Allegations of electronic tampering of voting machines are misplaced and misguided but concerns regarding the conduct of elections — police high-handedness, partisanship of local administration, and voter suppression through various means — are valid. They require a thorough and impartial investigation. Of particular concern is the dramatic rise in voter turnout in the final figures, compared to what was announced at the end of polling time, noticed in recent elections. The ECI may well be right in saying that voters who are in queue at the closing hour get recorded only in the final figures. But the easiest and perhaps the most credible way to establish this claim is to allow wide inspection of the relevant video footage. The ECI has explained that the candidates have access to all documents, papers and records and nothing has been amended in the rules in this regard. It remains unclear how its officials will deal with requests from candidates for records including video footage while the public will face a default denial in most cases. The privacy and security arguments are weak if candidates can access records anyway. In effect, the change in rules does not solve any problem that the ECI says it does, other than time and effort. And it has raised more questions about the ECI’s intentions.
Published – December 25, 2024 12:20 am IST
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Hide and seek: on the ECI and the election process
