Delhi Elections | Dear ECI, why wait three days to announce results?

On January 7, in a press conference lasting over an hour, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced that the polling for the Assembly elections in Delhi will be held on February 5, and the results will be declared three days later on February 8. This seemingly innocuous announcement raises some issues.

The fundamental issue is: Should it take three days to declare the results of the election of a pseudo-state which has only 70 constituencies, and which is largely urbanised with reasonably good infrastructure?

One of the arguments often advanced in favour of using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) is that results can be declared quickly, because counting of paper ballots is supposed to be very time consuming.

When results of some other Assembly elections are declared several days after polling, or after the end of polling in the last phase of a multiphase election, a reason often given is that it takes time to get the EVMs from far-flung polling booths to the counting station. In Delhi, there are no far-flung areas, because all villages in rural parts of the Delhi state are connected with reasonably good roads. So, even if polling goes on till 11 pm on February 5 in some booths due to long lines, it should be possible to get all the EVMs, Control Units, etc. to the counting centre by 8 am the next day. Counting can, thus, easily commence at 8 am, February 6, and it should be possible to declare the results by noon the same day itself.

Sometimes an extra day is kept in reserve in case a repoll is ordered in any booth. There are two facts which indicate that this is unlikely the reason for scheduling the results be declared on February 8. First, the track record of the current ECI. The ECI often claims that it organises near perfect elections and repolls are not often required. Given this self-proclaimed impeccable performance, the chances of a repoll being ordered are minimal.

The second is that even if, in the highly unlikely event of a repoll being ordered, it is always possible to withhold the result of the one or two odd constituencies in which repoll may be ordered, and declare the results of the remaining 68-69 constituencies.

The above discussion shows that there does not seem to be a logical reason for a three-day gap to announce the poll results. However, it is also not possible to believe that the ECI has taken this decision without any rationale.

Since the rationale does not seem to have been disclosed till now, not unexpectedly, speculations have arisen about it. Going by the experience of the last few elections, particularly after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections where polling percentages increased, sometimes progressively, as time passed after polling, apprehensions that a three-day gap could see a similar increase has come up in some circles. These are only speculations and apprehensions, however, all efforts must be made to remove such doubts and reassure the public.

There is an obvious antidote to this. Given that the chief election commissioner often mentions the guiding principle of the ECI to be ‘disclosure’, it should not be unreasonable to expect the rationale behind this decision to be made public. That will put to rest all such speculations and apprehensions. Obviously, the sooner it is done, the better.

Will the CEC do that? The nation awaits!

(Jagdeep S Chhokar is a founder-member of the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). X: @JagdeepChhokar.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.