ECI starts probe into violation of polling rules
The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday initiated an inquiry into a purported video circulating on social media, which shows two individuals at an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) at the same time inside a polling booth during the Visavadar assembly bypoll in Gujarat. The video was also flagged by Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Gujarat legal cell in an email to the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), seeking 'urgent action' and claiming there are 'many more' such videos.
In the purported video, an official in the polling booth is seen engaged in his work while two individuals appear to be instructing each other at the EVM. More people are also seen standing nearby, talking to another official.
AAP's national media in-charge Anurag Dhandha told HT that the Gujarat legal cell filed a complaint on the issue via email to both the ECI and the state CEO. The complaint copy–seen by HT–stated: 'Received this video [attached in the email] from our party members of booth number 40 of Patapur of Visavadar Assembly bypoll election and someone is doing unlawful activities in [the] booth. This is just one video, but we have many more as per information. Look into it on [an] urgent basis.'
Gujarat CEO Hareet Shukla told HT that he has directed Junagadh's District Magistrate and Collector–under whose jurisdiction Visavadar falls–to investigate. Shukla said: 'The videos will be in our records also because we are doing 100 percent monitoring through CCTV in all the booths. I can't comment more until the video is verified. So let the investigation be completed.'
The AAP's allegations come days after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi wrote an op-ed accusing the ECI of 'industrial scale rigging' of Maharashtra's assembly election. While the Commission had refuted Gandhi's claims, the video–if verified–would then attract violation of Conduct of Election Rules and raise serious questions about the robustness of the electoral process, at a time when public access to such footage has been restricted. Following last year's amendment to the Conduct of Election Rules, public access was withdrawn by the ECI of such data claiming to prevent misuse.
The video surfaced shortly after the ECI mandated 100 percent webcasting at all polling stations to enhance oversight. In a press release issued Thursday after the bypolls, the ECI said: 'The Commission has ensured 100 percent webcasting of poll-day activities at all polling stations, except one, in the five bye-poll ACs (assembly constituencies). The webcasting was monitored to ensure that critical activities were taking place smoothly and there was no violation of the poll process.'
The ECI had earlier stated that webcasting footage would be for internal use only, with videography used in areas without internet. People aware of the matter said that live videos were tracked from control rooms set up at the state, district, and constituency levels–each overseen by a nodal officer.
Besides Visavadar, bye-elections were also held in Kadi (Gujarat), Nilambur (Kerala), Ludhiana West (Punjab), and Kaliganj (West Bengal), covering a total of 1,354 polling booths.
The ECI on Thursday also claimed to have 'successfully implemented' several new initiatives introduced over the past four months, such as mobile deposit facilities for voters, an upgraded voter turnout sharing system for faster updates, Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls before bypolls after two decades, and also the 100 percent webcasting to ensure close monitoring of the polling process.
'The successful implementation of these measures in the bye-polls paves the way for full introduction of all these measures in the forthcoming Bihar assembly elections,' the Commission stated in a press release.
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