Activists launch signature campaign urging President for judicial inquiry into Election Commission functioning

New Delhi: Activists have initiated a signature campaign urging the President to order a judicial inquiry into the functioning of the Election Commission on maintaining the integrity of electoral process and voters lists, saying any instance of erosion of trust needs to be looked into at the earliest.

The campaign has cited the EC’s difference in approach in dealing with the allegations levelled by Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and BJP MP Anurag Thakur, its refusal to provide machine-readable electoral rolls, and amending rules to deny access to CCTV footage, among others, in its appeal.

Prof Jagdeep Chokhar of Association for Democratic Reforms, Former IAS officers EAS Sarma and Jawahar Sircar, and activist Teesta Setalvad, among others, have initiated the campaign at a time the EC is facing allegations of irregularities in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Bihar.

“The effectiveness of the Election Commission as the custodian of free and fair elections depends on the trust it elicits from the public. Any instance that is likely to erode the public trust in its functioning needs to be looked into at the earliest,” the appeal to the President read.

“...to make sure that the EC has been functioning in an apolitical, independent manner so as to maintain its public credibility, we would respectfully appeal…to order a judicial enquiry to determine the factual position with respect to the questions posed above and the corrective action needed,” it said.

It referred to Rahul’s claims on Mahadevapura Assembly seat as well as Thakur’s claims on five Lok Sabha seats and an Assembly seat and said there is “no evidence” to show that the EC has demanded an “oath” from the BJP MP on his allegation, as it did for Rahul.

“There cannot be one law for one complainant and another for another complainant,” it said, adding allegations and counter-allegations do not provide comfort to citizens, as it tends to raise “serious questions about the integrity of electoral rolls and the machinery involved in its preparations.

Seeing “no valid reason” as to why the EC cannot consider all such complaints as a part of the much-needed feedback system it ought to put in place, the appeal felt that neither the LoP nor anyone, who has “presented his/her analysis based on authentic data obtained from the EC itself”, cannot be expected to authenticate that data.

It said investigators have managed to convert non-text-searchable formats of electoral rolls to text-searchable versions to carry out analysis to “highlight large-scale errors” in the Bihar SIR. “If that is feasible, why should the Commission continue to pretend that machine-readable versions raise cybersecurity concerns?” it said.

It also said the EVM votes are counted without mixing of votes across different polling booths. This helps parties know voting patterns, which in turn permits them to manipulate in such a way that the addition or deletion of a few names, or even intimidation of voters not likely to vote in their favour, could tilt the election result in their favour, it said.

Arguing for a judicial inquiry, the appeal claimed that the government’s “deviation” from the Supreme Court guidelines in the composition of th selection panel for Election Commissioners, giving the executive the dominance, itself has raised concerns about the impartiality of the EC.