Vote for Democracy Alleges Major Irregularities in 2024 Maharashtra Polls

Quick Summary:

• report Release: Vote for Democracy (VFD), led by election experts, released a report titled “Dysfunctional ECI and Weaponisation of IndiaS Election system,” analyzing anomalies in Maharashtra’s November 2024 assembly elections.
• Key Concerns:

– Alleged vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems, including microchips, VVPATs, SLUs, and voter rolls.
– Claims that the system has been linked to the internet as 2017, increasing susceptibility to manipulation.
– Large-scale disenfranchisement due to ECI’s voter roll practices.

• Voting Irregularities:

– Sudden late-night surge of 48 lakh votes between 5 p.m. and midnight on polling day.
– Marginal seat wins: 25 seats by fewer than 3,000 votes; 69 seats by fewer than 10,000 votes.

• Electoral Roll Discrepancies: Inconsistencies in rolls between May (Lok Sabha polls) and November (Assembly elections) with unexplained additions of 46 lakh voters.
• Vote Surges Favoring BJP: The BJP saw an average vote increase of 28,000 per constituency compared to Lok Sabha elections six months earlier without proportional demographic growth.
• High-profile Constituency issues: Several cases like Nagpur South-West showed unprecedented voter additions exceeding the ECI verification threshold; allegations surfaced regarding inaccurate vote tallies from EVMs in villages like Solapur’s Markadwadi.
• Systemic challenges Identified:

– Procedural issues such as power outages during counting and strong room breaches.- Amendments curbing scrutiny of election data and reducing CCTV record retention time from one year to just 45 days after polls.
– Alleged lack of accountability for reported hate speech violations during polls.

Indian Opinion Analysis:

The VFD report raises serious concerns about India’s electoral integrity through detailed documentation of irregularities in Maharashtra’s Assembly elections. Its findings highlight systemic vulnerabilities ranging from technical flaws within electronic voting systems to procedural lapses observed during polling and counting phases.

While no direct evidence conclusively proves intentional manipulation or malfeasance at scale across constituencies mentioned in the study, patterns such as unexplained surges in voter turnout alongside discrepancies related specifically toward legal procedures governing transparency over monitoring past-respective audits compel stakeholders nationwide reassess regional advisories institutional operationalization safeguarding-inclusive participative governance rollout safeguards surrounding focus mechanisms fair efficient manner overall efficacy-function play policy emphasis** structural policy

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