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New Delhi, Nov 21 (IANS) Amid widespread claims of a huge gap between the actual votes cast and the total number of eligible voters in the recently concluded Bihar Assembly elections, the Election Commission on Friday rejected the ‘mismatch’ theory and cited a set of polling data, including postal ballots, to expose false claims and projections.
Viral claims circulating on social media state that the number of votes cast in the assembly elections is more than the total number of registered voters, revealing irregularities and rigging in the voting process.
It claimed that the Election Commission showed a total of 7.42 crore voters in its final list released on September 30 after the SIR exercise. However, in its statement after the two-phase elections concluded on November 14, the Election Commission showed the total number of voters at 7.45 crore.
Notably, the Election Commission in its last index card released on November 17 had reported a record voter turnout of 67.13 percent.
The poll panel on Friday took note of the claims and refuted the claims of voter-voter mismatch. The Election Commission said the skewed data does not take into account postal ballots, thus raising doubts about the integrity of the voting process.
According to sources related to Election Commission data, a total of 2,01,444 postal ballots were cast in Bihar elections, out of which 23,918 were rejected.
A total of 9,10,730 voters – in both EVMs and postal ballots, opted for NOTA – an option voters use to express their no-confidence in any candidate contesting the election.
“When EVM votes and postal ballots are put together, the number of valid voters matches the official numbers exactly, making the Election Commission’s data 100 per cent accurate,” the poll panel said.
Rejecting the estimated figure of 5,000,29,880 votes, it was claimed that if 1,77,526 postal ballots are included in the final count, the numbers would completely match with the EC numbers.
–IANS
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