Questioning the delay in releasing the final figures for the percentage of votes cast in the first two phases of the Lok Sabha election, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar, asked the panel to explain the six per cent surge from the initial figures that the EC had put out.
Mr. Yechury in his letter pointed out that EC took 11 days to publish the final figures for the first phase and four days for the second phase. “Unfortunately, the ECI has not come out with any explanation for the cause of this undue delay. What goes unanswered is also a surge of 6 per cent from the initial figures that the ECI put out and the final figure,” he wrote. He also said that this surge is unusual and “raises some suspicion”.
Mr. Yechury urged the EC in the interests of “transparency and credibility” to clear the doubts and publish State-wise, constituency-wise and Assembly segment wise break-up of the initial and final percentage as also the number of votes cast.
