EC against disclosing booth-wise poll result

The Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that it was not in favour of disclosing booth-wise voting pattern and instead, preferred cluster counting to protect right to privacy of the voters.

A bench presided over by Justice Dipak Misra asked the poll panel to submit an affidavit as the EC further claimed that it had already urged the Centre to amend the rules in this regard.

The court also issued notice to the Centre and fixed the matter for further consideration on July 7. It was hearing a PIL urging a direction to the poll panel to declare the Parliamentary elections results of each constituency “as a whole” without disclosing booth-wise voting pattern.

The petition filed by a Jalandhar-based advocate, Yogesh Gupta, contended that revealing election results ward-wise or on each voting machine basis affected privacy that comes with the right to vote of a citizen and could also lead to vindictive reactions from the political class.

The petitioner said the voters’ choice should be kept secret and every Parliamentary constituency’s result should be declared as a whole.

With the use of  EVMs, it has become easier to identify the voting pattern. Earlier, when ballot papers were in use, those were mixed before counting, obviating the possibility of revealing voters’ choice from a particular booth.