No response from EC on poll irregularities spurs retd bureaucrats to write reminder letter

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Retd Civil Servants Write Reminder Letter to Election Commission on “Serious Irregularities in the Conduct of General Elections, 2019”

A group of retired civil servants has written a reminder letter to the Election Commission (EC) questioning its “Silence on Issues Raised with Regards to Serious Irregularities in the Conduct of Lok Sabha General Elections, 2019”.

Referring to the letters dated July 2, July 20 and August 10, the retired civil servants said in the letter: “Please refer to the letter dated 2nd July 2019 on the above subject of addressed to you by 64 former civil servants and endorsed by 83 veterans of the defense services, academics, and other concerned citizens. Subsequent reminders have been sent…

“Your failure to respond to any of the points raised in the letter and reminders, or to even acknowledge their receipt, leads us to wonder whether we will ever receive a response.”

The letter further added: “We do not believe that there is any justification for the ECI not displaying on its web site: (i) the Parliament Constituency-wise, Assembly segment-wise, and polling station-wise figures of (a) votes polled in EVMs [i.e. other than postal ballots] and (b) votes as counted in EVMs. Ideally, there should be no discrepancies between the two sets of figures. (ii) details of the 5 polling stations chosen as ‘samples’ for each Assembly segment, and the polling station-wise figures of (a) EVM electronic count and (b) VVPAT manual count. Ideally, there should be no discrepancies between these two sets of figures also.”

Citing the discrepancies, the retired civil servants urged EC: immediately display on its web site, the figures indicated in (i) and (ii) above; disclose the ‘decision rules’, if any, of the ECI about manual counting in the event of discrepancies of either type occurring; disclose if there were any occasions to apply these decision rules during the recently concluded Parliamentary Elections.

— India Legal Bureau

Read the letter below: 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1oo0fDra_-6qGEF-w69I34PEBdPZhYyya