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Raising concerns over the credibility of the Election Commission (EC), following significant delays in the release of election data, Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Thursday asked why the voting percentage data for the first phase of Lok Sabha elections was uploaded eleven days after the polling day.
Sibal questioned the reliability of institutions in the eyes of the public, emphasizing the importance of transparency and timely information. "The Supreme Court has given a decision regarding the EVM and they have said that every citizen should have faith in the Election Commission. But, is the EC or any other agencies trustworthy? After the first phase, the data on the EC website, about the vote percentage, was uploaded after 11 days. It only shows the percentage of the votes, not the number. I dont know what the reason is," Sibal said. He emphasised that the Commission should address concerns regarding the delay by holding a press conference to explain the reasons behind the 11-day lag in releasing the data. "The Election Commission should clarify via a press conference why it took 11 days. I have spoken to previous election commissioners, and they have said that when they were in the election commission, then on the same day, or next morning, the results of the turn out would be released. Then why 11 days. When this doubt arises, then the faith of the people decreases," he said. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court last week rejected all the petitions seeking 100 per cent verification of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) votes with their Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar also rejected their prayer to revert to paper ballot voting system. Earlier, Aam Aadmi party leader Saurabh Bharadwaj expressed dissatisfaction, saying that when the issue went to the apex court, Election Commission, and BJP opposed it. "If today, the Central govt says that all VVPATs should be counted then the Election Commission will agree. The problem is when the issue goes to Court, Election Commission, Central govt and BJP oppose this..." he added further. (ANI)
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