‘Explain delay in releasing voter turnout percentage’

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Tuesday wrote to the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking explanation and clarification for the poll panel’s alleged delay in releasing the voter turnout for the first two phases of elections in Bengal. The party also demanded the release of the number of votes cast in both the phases. “As you are aware, the polling for phases 1 and 2 of the ensuing General Elections to Lok Sabha 2024, concluded on 19.04.2024 and 26.04.2024 respectively. The Election Commission of India belatedly released the voter turnout percentages for phases 1 and 2 on 30th April 2024,” read a letter the TMC sent to the commission on Monday.

The party demanded the commission publish the total number of registered voters in each Parliamentary constituency, the total number of voters who turned up as per the “register of voters”, and the number of voters as recorded by electronic voting machines for all the six constituencies that went to the polls on April 19 and 26.

“However, the said voter turnout report only entails the percentage of votes cast. The report has no information about the total number of eligible electors and the actual votes cast. This is a paradigm shift from the previous voter turnout report(s) from past election(s), where the ECI provided a detailed report in this regard. The said report also exhibits notable discrepancies/inconsistencies in the percentages that was initially reported on 19.04.2024 pertaining to phase 1, wherein, the voter turnout percentage was shown to be 60 percent . Later the combined voter turnout report dated 30.04.2024 records the percentage of votes cast in phase 1 as 66.14 percent,” read the letter.

TMC also questioned the delay of 11 days in releasing the final turnout percentages for phase 1, which according to the party showed a significant surge of 5.75 per cent in voter participation.

“[That] it was being reported almost four days after the conclusion of phase 2 without any proper explanation sparks a serious concern and doubt in the minds of the electorate,” the letter further said.

The TMC letter quoted Rule 49S of the Conduct of Elections Rules 1961 and accused presiding officers of omitting crucial information. Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar went for polls on April 19 during the first phase while Raiganj, Balurghat and Darjeeling witnessed polls on April 26 during the second phase.