Election Commission slams 'false narratives’; releases absolute polling numbers for 5 phases of Lok Sabha election

New Delhi, May 25

The Election Commission on Saturday came out with Lok Sabha constituency-wise data on the number of votes cast in the first five phases of the elections and asserted that there is a “pattern in creating false narratives and mischievous design to vitiate the electoral process”.

It said that any alteration in the number of votes polled is not possible.

The poll panel came out with the absolute number of voters on its own a day after the Supreme Court refused to issue directions to it on an NGO’s plea for uploading polling booth-wise voter turnout data on its website.

The EC said it has decided to further expand the format of turnout data to include the absolute number of voters in every parliamentary constituency.

The absolute numbers are discernable parliamentary constituency-wise by all citizens by applying the turnout percentage to total electors, both already made available in the public domain, the poll panel said.

Electors are those who are part of the electoral roll and eligible to voters. Voters are those who actually cast their vote in an election. While EC had been issuing turnout percentage, there had been demands to make the actual number of voters in every phase public.