The Election Fee of India (EC) on Sunday cited privateness considerations of voters to argue why it has not shared CCTV footage from polling cubicles in current elections, even after severe allegations of irregularities levied by the Opposition led by Rahul Gandhi.
Criticising the usage of phrases like “vote chori (theft)”, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar was combative at a press convention in Delhi. He mentioned “unsuccessful efforts to mislead the voters” amounted to “nothing lower than an insult of the Structure”.
“At a time when photographs are being fired on the voters by perching a gun on the EC’s shoulder, we wish to make it clear, that the EC has fearlessly stood by voters from throughout sections and religions, and can proceed to face by them like a rock,” the CEC mentioned, talking in Hindi.
He spoke particularly on why machine-readable voter lists had not been supplied to events, such because the Congress, which have alleged pretend names and a number of entries. “The Supreme Courtroom has already held in 2019, that it might breach a voter’s privateness,” he mentioned.
Not naming Rahul Gandhi, he referred apparently to the Congress MP’s and others’ citing of some voters having being enrolled at a number of locations.
“We noticed not too long ago, that some voters’ photographs have been proven to the media with out their consent; and allegations have been made utilizing them,” the CEC mentioned.
With it, he additionally referred to the demand for surveillance footage from polling cubicles to find out if duplicate or proxy voting came about.
“Ought to the Election Fee share CCTV movies of anybody’s mom, daughter-in-law, sister, or of anybody else?” Gyanesh Kumar mentioned, including, “Solely those that have their names on the voter lists can vote in an election.”
He talked about the big variety of election officers, booth-level brokers and candidates’ representatives — practically 1.3 crore — and argued, “In such a clear course of, can anybody steal votes?”
He mentioned no proof was supplied to again allegations of individuals voting twice.
The EC had earlier requested Rahul Gandhi to offer proofs underneath oath, to which he had retorted saying he had already taken the oath of the Structure as a member of Parliament, and that the EC might merely examine its personal information that he had cited.
The CEC mentioned false accusations “can scare neither the EC nor any voter”.
“At a time when photographs are being fired on the voters by perching a gun on the EC’s shoulder, we wish to make it clear, that the EC has fearlessly stood by voters from throughout sections and religions, and can proceed to face by them like a rock,” the CEC mentioned.
