Indian Lok Sabha Elections: Discrepancy between vote count and vote count in 538 constituencies in LS polls: ADR

The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), a voting rights group, has alleged discrepancies between the vote count and the vote count in 538 constituencies in India’s Lok Sabha elections. According to an ADR analysis released at a press conference on Monday, in the recent Indian Lok Sabha elections, 362 constituencies had fewer votes than the total, at 554,598, while 176 constituencies had more votes than the total, at 35,093. The Election Commission’s response on the matter was awaited.
“Furthermore, the inordinate delay in releasing the final voter turnout data, the absence of a breakdown by absolute number of constituencies and polling stations, and whether the election results were announced based on the final reconciled data have raised concerns and public doubts about the accuracy of the election results,” ADR founder Jagdeep Chauker said at a press conference.

However, ADR did not say in how many seats these vote differences would have led to different outcomes.

The report said the Election Commission has so far failed to provide any reasonable explanation for discrepancies in EVM vote counts, inflated voter turnout, non-disclosure of vote count figures, unreasonable delays in publishing voting data and removal of certain data from its website in announcing election results before releasing final and accurate vote count data.

“The ECI’s failure to address and take appropriate action against the serious violations, irregularities and irregularities witnessed in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has created insecurity in the minds of voters. These insecurities must be seriously addressed and addressed,” Chokkar said.

According to the report, while declaring the results of the 2024 general elections, the votes polled and counted showed huge discrepancies in 538 constituencies excluding Amreli, Attingal, Lakshadweep, Dadranagar Haveli and Damandiur.

“Surat PC was uncontested. Hence, the total number of discrepancies in 538 PCs stands at 5,89,691 votes,” it said.

Poonam Agarwal, an independent journalist who was present at the press conference, said her analysis of vote count and opinion poll data had revealed exactly the same result.

In the 17th general elections, the voter count app showed the exact number of voters in the first six phases of the election, but in the last phase i.e. the seventh phase of voting, it showed only the percentage figures and the earlier data was deleted by the Election Commission.

An investigation conducted by a team of experts and ADR found significant discrepancies between the number of voters in each constituency and the number of votes actually counted.

“The master summary of 542 constituencies showed discrepancies in 347 seats. 195 seats had no discrepancies at all. The discrepancies ranged from 1 vote (lowest) to 1,01,323 votes (10.49% of the total votes) (highest),” it said.

Regarding the 2019 election, the report said: “There were six constituencies where the margin of votes was greater than the number of candidates elected. The total margin of votes was 739,104 votes.”

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