NEW DELHI: A PIL was filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday against the provisional declaration of election results without actual and accurate reconciliation of discrepancies in polling data.
The petition was filed by NGOs Association for Democratic Reforms and Common Cause. It said, “The petitioners see no valid justification in declaring the election results before releasing the final data on the vote count. To maintain the veracity of elections and uphold voters’ confidence, a statutory valid election result should be given importance over a few days of delay. Election results based on estimates and assumptions and without any statutory backing defeats the very purpose of elections.”
“The infirmities in the existing system of conducting elections by declaring the election results even before the authenticated election data is released by the Election Commission is far more serious and an alarming trend and therefore, cannot be disregarded. Such a protocol is likely to create a very discredited electoral process,” the PIL stated.
While clarifying that the petitioners weren’t disputing this year’s poll results, the PIL says the early declaration of results this year was riddled with discrepancies.