Most important elections are ongoing in India and now as the last 7th Phase of Lok Sabha elections happens on June 1st 2024, it would soon be time to count the votes on June 4th. The 2024 Lok Shabha elections started on April 19 and the elections were conducted for India's numerous States and Union territories in 6 Phases.
Till now, the franchise process has culminated in 25 States and Union Territories of India, with voting concluded for 428 out of 543 constituencies. So, already voting for 485 seats to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Parliament is over.
Plenty of interesting happenings this election that would make for a great writeup but right now the serious issue needs to be spotlighted.
I had ventured to very subtly talk about how India's 2024 Lok Sabha elections are not happening in a free and fair manner in my previous articles.
India’s Democracy unfortunately got substantially weakened with most pillars of Democracy under the control of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose BJP party works on the framework set by him.
BJP Modi intends to win by crooked ways now in control of the Election supervising body - ECI!
I have already mentioned about Modi's BJP having captured mainstream media, nicknamed as Godi Media who have been successful in spreading Government propaganda.
Now, what’s most relevant is Modi's BJP having captured the Election Commission of India(ECI), who are supposed to be an autonomous body to oversee that the election processes take place free and fairly.
Since ECI is working favoring Modi's BJP to win, this election is an unfairly made tough fight for the opposition INDIA Bloc.
ECI, as explained in my previous article comprises of the Chief Election Commissioner and 2 other Election Commissioners who were chosen by Prime Minister Modi and his aide Amit Shah, Home Minister from the Prime Minister's Cabinet.
So, in this light, one can see, why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not punished for making so many speeches that were communally charged as explained in my earlier article.
This election it’s a fact that PM Narendra Modi, has downgraded himself by making degrading statements not fitting to the post he holds of a country's Prime Minister.
Now, the question is not on BJP winning fairly due to the popularity of PM Narendra Modi, the question is the possibility of BJP winning due to cheating by manipulating votes with Modi BJP controlled ECI in charge of counting votes polled.
Modi BJP's big grip on India's Election processes has already given BJP an unfair lead by default
Already I have explained why there are doubts on whether votes cast through EVMs are recorded truthfully. No one knows whether the source code of these EVMs is audited to certify that it has only honest code that allows cast votes to be recorded as cast.
Since these EVMs’ source code are not open source and have not undergone independent audits, one can’t be sure they are free from code compelling them to record cast votes falsely. This is a fact.
Add to this the Public sector companies that manufacture these EVMs have BJP ministers on their Board of Directors.
Now, add to this the Poll Body that oversees the election process is also not independent but is under the control of Modi's BJP.
Certainly, these are enough grounds to be certain that this 2024 Lok Sabha Elections are not being conducted in a free and fair manner. This hurts us Indian Citizens as this threatens India’s democratic processes.
There is definitely no level playing field for opposition political parties as the election process of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is conducted in a manner that benefits BJP.
ECI's reluctance to disclose authenticated voter turnout data cast doubts on its counting process
Practically, more signs of worry showed up with ECI not furnishing accurate data of voter turnout, along with absolute figures of the number of votes polled.
Absolute number of votes polled data is available polling booth-wise, which gets compiled to get absolute votes polled numbers for one entire Constituency.
It’s so easy to get this data as EVM machine itself records this information. At the press of a button votes polled data is procured, and jotted down by the presiding election officer of the booth in the Form 17C Part 1.
Even so, election officers there maintain records of voters who have voted. This is counted and figures are there by the end of the poll day.
It’s been the norm that ECI puts out this data on the public domain with data on the number of votes polled, the number of voters in the Constituency. Based on these numbers voter turnout percentage is derived which is also mentioned.
Normally, all this data is put out by the ECI by the end of the polling day or next day. There is provisional voter turnout data that’s the approximate number and the revised final voter turnout data which are the final numbers. Generally, the variation between them is about 1-2 % which is considered normal.
However, this time elections happened and finished with Phase 1 and Phase 2 over. ECI furnished only voting turnout percentage, and did not provide the numbers based on which this voting turnout percentage was tabulated.
ECI provided incomplete, inconsistent voter turnout percentages which they increased without explanation
They provided provisional that is initial voting turnout percentage end of polling day and surprisingly delayed giving the final voting turnout percentage. So, the final voting turnout percentage for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of elections that happened on April 19th and April 26th was put out only on April 30th.
This data too, was not complete as only voting percentage details were provided but absolute numbers from which these percentages were derived were not furnished. The final voter turnout percentage too increased by 6% and 5%, which is a lot.
Such, increased voter percentage turnout revisions add lakhs of votes from initial figures. As no proof is provided to support these numbers it just makes one feel that the data provided maybe manipulated or is computed with errors. One cannot do such a bad job of compiling this data as explained it's easy, there should not be so much variance.
Now, for instance, the provisional voting turnout percentage for the Andhra Pradesh at the end of the voting day was put out as 76.5%. Final voter turnout percentage was given as 80.66%, a 4.16% increase. This increase added 17.2 lakh votes from initial provisional data estimate.
Likewise, the voter turnout percentage for Odisha State was put as 67.59% initially this was later revised to 73.5%. This adds another 4.7 lakh votes from the initial estimate.
Same is the case with many States.
Voter turnout percentage revisions for the concluded 4 Phases of elections added another 1 crore 7 lakh extra votes.
This means all this percentage revisions done by ECI from initial percentage of voter turnout they gave, added up to so many voters. So, x% of revision of voter turnout percentage in each Phase of the election ended up adding crores of extra voters.
Interview with former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi and Former election commissioner Ashok Lavasa on ECI providing Voter Turnout percentage after delays with discrepancies from the initial provisional voter turnout percentage. They also provide their views on whether its acceptable that ECI is not providing absolute figure of voter turnout numbers and are not obliging to upload Form 17C Part 1.
Public demand for ECI to get transparent with their electoral counting data
All this worried Civil society, opposition party leaders and the public who demanded ECI to be more transparent showing us, the public accurate data.
There was demand for Form 17C Part 1 to be uploaded. As this is that form on which the presiding officer records information on the number of votes polled, a copy of which is given to polling agents of every political party.
ECI, refused to respond to these concerns raised.
Earlier ECI, used to hold press conferences, after each Phase of voting. Here, they used to explain why there was a difference between the provisional voting turnout data they provided and the final voting turnout data. This time, there was no such thing.
Concerned activists, seeked a meeting with ECI, along with a petition signed by thousands of others to furnish the absolute number of votes polled data but ECI did not bother to see them.
More pressure applied by Civil Society Organisations for ECI to upload authenticated voter turnout data
Finally, to ensure that vote counting process happens fairly, Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) took this case to the Supreme Court.
Their demand was to furnish absolute number of votes polled data along with uploading of Form 17C Part 1 form on the public domain that is ECI’s website.
Unfortunately, the court did not press ECI to do these things, saying they don’t want to interfere on the election process now and we should trust them.
ECI finally provides data on the absolute number of voters who polled
Now, however, due to pressure applied from political party leaders, civil society Organisations and the public, ECI began to furnish absolute number of votes polled data for all 6 Phases of elections that is concluded.
However, still there is no transparency and no sign of ECI showing accountability for their functions. As ECI is not uploading Form 17C Part 1, from which account of votes polled number is taken for computation.
Modi's BJP may get bonus votes by cheating but the untampered portion of votes recorded can still punch them hard!
With ECI working for Modi BJP, BJP party has a lot of room to cheat and get bonus fake votes this election. This is a big worry for Indian Citizens who value India's Democracy and expect votes cast to be counted as cast based on which Government forms.
Yet, I hold hope, although it's true there are several ways Modi's BJP can get bonus votes.
EVM can record some percentage of votes cast for other parties as votes recorded for BJP, if there is a code with instructions like that.
There have been instances where voters were not allowed to excise their right to vote. There are also reports of booth capturing where voters' voter ID was snatched by some elements who cast vote on the voters' behalf.
All these instances happen only because the authorities be it election officers or police personnel are in control of Modi's BJP. It looks likely that instances of election malpractice have occurred but the current ECI would not act to curb this.
EVM custody is in strong rooms, and there are reports of 19 lakh missing EVMs. Maybe EVMs can be replaced by another fake EVM.
The vote counting process may not happen honestly with this ECI under Modi BJP supervising the process.
However, there are ways to ensure that fair counting takes place on June 4th and also to verify the authenticity of the EVM systems.
The opposition parties are not going to let these guys cheat. Opposition party candidate or their representatives are allowed to supervise the counting process. It would happen in front of them. This is sure.
EVMs’ details can be verified from Form 17C Part 1 as the presiding officer records details of the serial number of EVM, VVPAT and ballot unit.
There are more details of start time, end time, number of votes polled on EVM which can be examined by party candidates to be matching so as to ascertain that there has been no tampering of EVMs.
So, to some extent a part of votes cast I believe would definitely be counted truthfully. Although I don't feel these elections were conducted in a free and fair manner and Modi BJP probably secured a lot of fake bonus votes.
Final Countdown indeed - Will Democracy survive for Indians?
I am tempted to end this writeup with this song – Final Countdown …
As these elections are the final countdown to decide India’s future on whether it will have Democracy or will its Democratic Framework be decimated by Modi BJP.
Thank you for reading!!