Ten days have passed since the commencement of the Lok Sabha elections, with the first phase occurring on April 19 and the second on April 26. Despite time, the Election Commission (EC) has not officially disclosed the final polling figures for these phases.
As of now, the only available information on the EC mobile app is the “approximate trend” released by the Commission at 7 pm on the respective polling days for the first and second phases. On April 19, the EC announced an approximate voter turnout of 60 percent, while on April 26, it reported about 60.96 percent. However, the final exact figures have yet to be released by the EC.
When contacted, a senior ECI official revealed that after collating data, the final polling percentages for the first and second phases stand at 66.14 percent and 66.7 percent, respectively. However, these “final figures” have not been uploaded to the EC App at the time of writing.
Crucially, essential data remains missing both on the EC website and its associated app. For instance, there is no available information on how many voters are registered in a parliamentary constituency. Furthermore, the EC website does not disclose the exact number of voters who cast their votes in the two phases on a seat-wise basis.
Attempts to access the number of voters in each constituency yielded errors in states like Odisha, Bihar, and Delhi. Additionally, the website does not provide an overall number of voters in each Lok Sabha seat, with data only available on the total number of voters in a state and the number of voters in each booth.
Experts have criticised the lack of transparency, emphasising the importance of knowing the number of registered voters to contextualise voter turnout percentages. They argue that this information was readily available in previous elections and is crucial for meaningful analysis.
Furthermore, experts advocate for the adoption of technology to streamline data collection and dissemination, suggesting the implementation of a mobile app for booth officers to upload data promptly after polling concludes.
As stakeholders await the release of final figures, concerns persist regarding the transparency and accessibility of electoral data, vital for ensuring the integrity and accountability of the democratic process.