Now the official numbers are out. Election Commission revealed the poll percentages at the district level and at the state level, almost 28 hours after the election was over. Election Commission announced that total vote percentage is 73.2 percent. But Election Commission also apologized for the names missing in the voter list.
Lakhs of people found their names missing in the list
It is known news that, many people who have been voting for years, complained they could not find their names at their regular polling station this time. Sports women Gutta Jwala and a senior IPS officer also were among those who complained. Telangana minister Etela Rajender’s family members also found their names missing in the list and couldn’t cast their vote. The process EC has been following for removing of dead person’s votes and of those who changed address is a manual process i.e. booth level officers need to go to the homes and manually verify and act accordingly. However, at booth level the process is not followed rigorously. There is CEO website where people can register themselves and also verify their names in the list. But last 2 days before election, this website didn’t work.
CEO admitted and apologized:
Chief Electoral Officer has admitted that there were many people who could not cast their vote because of their name missing in the voter list. He has apologized to voters who were denied their right to vote. In September this year, 2.81 crore people were named in Telangana’s final electoral rolls after the names of 3 lakh dead voters and duplicate names were removed. As per reports almost 22 lakh people couldn’t utilise their vote because of this reason. It is almost 8% of the total number of voters. In the era where 1% or 2% votes also tilting the governments, how is it justified to have elections when 8% of voters’ names are missing in the list.
Was EC unprepared for early polls?
Even before the election notification itself, Congress leader Marri Shashidhar Reddy went to court saying the electoral rolls were not complete and had serious errors. However Election Commission went ahead and conducted polls. Moreover, TRS going for early elections mounted pressure on Election commission. EC always have a choice to say when they can conduct elections, even if assembly is dissolved. But why EC agreed to conduct elections, when it is not yet ready is a million dollar question.
Ours is the largest democracy, and it is 7 decades old. But still our institutions depriving lakhs of people of their constitutional right of voting – is something that needs urgent attention.
