The Election Commission said on Sunday that 62.59% of electors turned up to vote for the assembly elections, releasing the final turnout figures amid criticism from chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for “a delay” in compiling the final numbers.
The new tally was slightly higher than the 61.7% estimate released immediately after polling ended a little over 24 hours ago – a wait that was panned by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders but described as usual by the commission’s officials.
“The work stretched for long hours. The polling concluded late. We were sealing strongrooms till early morning hours [on Sunday]. The polling station scrutiny extended till afternoon. It was not much of a delay as such,” said Delhi’s chief electoral officer Ranbir Singh.
Senior deputy election commissioner from the Election Commission of India Sandeep Saxena said, “It’s no delay and it is not uncommon.”
Earlier on Sunday, the ruling AAP flagged concerns over possible tampering with electronic voting machines and questioned the Capital’s electoral office over the delay in the release of the final turnout figures even a day after the city-state voted.
On Saturday, the AAP had demanded that the Election Commission allow its workers and volunteers to camp outside the strongrooms housing the EVMs to guard them and ensure they are not tampered with after exit polls predicted that the party would comfortably retain power. The request was granted.
On Sunday, party leader Sanjay Singh shared a video that showed a person in possession of an EVM and raised concerns about the potential for tampering with the machines. The clip was of a polling station in the Babarpur assembly constituency.
Delhi’s CEO Singh dismissed concerns. “EVMs are safe and secure with strongrooms being guarded by security officials, poll officials and volunteers of the political parties,” Singh said.
On the Babarpur video clip, he said: “It was a reserve machine and was not used in the polls. The person spotted in the video was a poll official who was transferring the machine from one location to another after the polls and ended up being surrounded by a group.”
Some turnout trends did come as a surprise. Assembly constituencies such as Ballimaran and Shakur Basti, which were recorded as those with the lowest turnouts in the lists released until Saturday night, later turned out to be among those with the highest voting areas the next day.
While Shakur Basti is the assembly constituency of Delhi’s health minister Satyendar Jain, Ballimaran is the seat of Delhi’s food minister Imran Hussain.
Polling in Saturday’s election went on well past the scheduled close of 6pm and closed around 9pm to accommodate voters still waiting in queues for their turn. AAP was upset about the delay in the release of the final turnout figures, which were released only around 7pm on Sunday.
“Absolutely shocking. What is EC doing? Why are they not releasing poll turnout figures, several hours after polling?” chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet around 3:30pm on Sunday.
Hours later, Ranbir Singh released the figures in a press conference. The voter turnout in Delhi turned out to be 62.59%, which is 2 percentage points higher than that in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and around five less than the turnout in the 2015 assembly polls, which the AAP won with a thumping majority of 67 out of 70 seats.
Ballimaran recorded the highest voter turnout of 71.6% and Delhi Cantonment recorded the lowest 45.4%, the records showed.
Sanjay Singh, a Rajya Sabha MP of AAP, said: “Election Commission did not announce polling percentage even after 24 hours; we fear a conspiracy. For the first time in the history of 70 years, the Election Commission has not yet announced the percentage of votes cast, even after 24 hours of voting. Election Commission is not ready to declare the voting percentage of just 70 assembly seats in Delhi.”
