{"id":296678,"date":"2024-05-23T18:01:47","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T12:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=296678"},"modified":"2024-05-23T20:53:17","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T15:23:17","slug":"election-commission-stance-on-voter-turnout-disclosure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/election-commission-stance-on-voter-turnout-disclosure\/","title":{"rendered":"Election Commission Stance on Voter Turnout Disclosure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Source<\/strong>-This post on<strong> Election Commission Stance on Voter Turnout Disclosure <\/strong>has been created based on the article<a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/ccidist-ws\/th\/th_delhi\/issues\/84180\/OPS\/GA3CR6DJE.1+G8TCR7BR4.1.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> &#8221; No legal mandate to share voter turnout with public, says EC&#8221;<\/a> published in \u201c<b>The Hindu<\/b>\u201d on 23 May 2024.<\/p>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<p>The Election Commission (EC) stated to the Supreme Court that there was <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">no<\/span> \u201c<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">legal mandate<\/span>\u201d to provide the voter turnout data to any person other than electoral candidates or their agents. The NGO on electoral reforms <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">ADR,<span style=\"color: #333333;\"> claimed <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">delays and discrepancies in voter turnout data<\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #333333;\">,<\/span> suggesting these issues could demotivate voters and raise doubts about the electoral process.<\/p>\n<h2>Election Commission&#8217;s Stance on Voter Turnout Disclosure<\/h2>\n<p>1. ECI stated there is<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"> no legal mandate to share Form 17C data<\/span> (account of votes recorded) with anyone other than candidates or their agents, a<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">s per the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Rules 49S and 56C of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961<\/strong>: Under these rules, the presiding officer prepares an account of votes recorded in Part-I of Form 17C and makes it available to every polling agent present at the close of the poll. ECI emphasized that this framework has <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">&#8220;held the field for the last 60 years,&#8221;<\/span> and any changes would require amendments to the existing rules.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. \u00a0ECI opposed ADR\u2019s plea on two grounds:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>a) EC&#8217;s concerns about Form 17C data-<\/strong><\/span> Indiscriminate disclosure of Form 17C could lead to <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">image morphing and public mistrust<\/span>. Lack of scanners and internet facilities at polling stations complicates uploading Form 17C.<\/p>\n<p><strong>b) Impracticality-<\/strong> EC held that releasing authenticated voter turnout data within 48 hours is impractical due to the <span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">detailed verification process required<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Legal Context and Previous Judgments:<\/strong> Supreme Court has previously upheld the Form 17C procedure. Judiciary interference in the electoral process is barred<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"> under Article 329(b)<\/span> from notification issuance to result declaration.<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPSC Syllabus: Polity and nation<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source-This post on Election Commission Stance on Voter Turnout Disclosure has been created based on the article &#8221; No legal mandate to share voter turnout with public, says EC&#8221; published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 23 May 2024. Why in News? The Election Commission (EC) stated to the Supreme Court that there was no \u201clegal mandate\u201d&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/election-commission-stance-on-voter-turnout-disclosure\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Election Commission Stance on Voter Turnout Disclosure<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,1760,9],"tags":[11872,10498],"class_list":["post-296678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-polity-and-nation","category-public","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}