Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Tuesday urged the Election Commission (EC) for an independent audit of the electoral process to address the alleged discrepancies in the voting patterns observed during the 2024 General and Assembly elections in Odisha.
A delegation of the regional party met the poll panel and submitted a second memorandum, reinforcing concerns first raised in December last year.
“We had mentioned in our earlier memorandum that discrepancies indicated therein were unusual and showed that there was either machine (EVM) error or manual error (during data entry) or process error or a combination of all these. Doubts have been raised in the minds of voters about conduct of free and fair elections on account of such discrepancies, which further get strengthened due to non-furnishing of Forms 17C Part I & Il despite repeated written requests since the last seven months,” the memorandum read.
The Allegation
The BJD, which suffered defeat in the last elections, alleged significant mismatches between votes recorded in Form 17C, filled by presiding officers, and Form 20, maintained by returning officers. It alleged discrepancies in the number of votes polled in assembly constituencies and corresponding Parliamentary constituencies across all 21 seats during the twin polls. It had cited vote variations of 4,056 in Dhenkanal, 3,521 in Kandhamal, and 2,701 in Balangir, among other constituencies.
The Recommendations
To ensure free and fair elections in the country, the regional party stressed the need for a periodic “process audit” of the entire electoral exercise by independent auditors or the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG). “Put in a mechanism
for conducting concurrent audit during polling at booth level as well as during counting after satisfactory completion of which the results should be declared. Concurrent audit can be done almost real-time so that there Is no undue delay in the declaration of results.”
The party also proposed citizen participation in monitoring elections from inception to result declaration.
It also recommended tallying all Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) counts at every booth using advanced counting machines. Additionally, they demanded a 30-day deadline for District Election Officers to furnish copies of Forms 17C Part I & II, as well as all VVPAT slips, to any citizen upon request.
“The BJD firmly believes that the adoption of these measures will help restore public trust in the transparency and fairness of the election process. The party has called on the Election Commission of India to seriously consider these suggestions to ensure that the electoral process remains credible and that the integrity of democracy is safeguarded,” it added.
Why Audit Is Necessary?
…Even if the Election Commission of India could be saying that they are doing everything properly, the perception all around is very different and since this perception is so different, these suggestions have been made with a view to improve this electoral process. I do not think the Election Commission of India should have any hesitation in getting an independent audit done. We do not even know whether they have an internal audit system which puts the results in the public domain…The point that our party is making is that the election is not only for political parties. What about independent candidates?What about independent candidates who cannot send agents to every vote? It is for every citizen who has voted. He has a right to believe, perceive that the election process in India is fair, transparent and that his vote has gone to the person for whom he wanted to vote or he has voted,” senior BJD leader Amar Patnaik.
He further stated that the BJD is in agreement with the concerns of Congress and the TMC, who raised the issue of duplicate voter ID cards in Parliament. “When we ask for an end-to-end process audit, periodic revision and addition and deletion in voter roll should also be monitored,” he added.