Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], August 10 : Former Rajya Sabha MP Amar Patnaik on Sunday said the Biju Janata Dal was the first party in Odisha to raise the issue of "discrepancies between votes polled and votes counted" in the state to the Election Commission of India (ECI).
He noted that the BJD also raised the "possible errors" in the Electronic Voting Machine during the electoral process.
"BJD is the first party in the state to raise the issue of discrepancies between votes polled and votes counted, as well as the alarming increase in votes polled after 5 pm... BJD had taken it to the ECI. We had raised serious misgivings not only about possible errors in the machine but also in the process itself, which could be manual," Amar Patnaik told ANI.
He further alleged that the ECI had not taken BJD's concerns seriously, stating that the response of the electoral body has been more "opaque" than transparent.
"EC's response was more opaque rather than transparent... We felt that EC is trying to avoid providing information to the political parties," Amar Patnaik said.
"Our demand is that the EC should henceforth conduct a process audit right from the preparation of the electoral roll till the announcement of results," he added.
Earlier this year, in March, a Biju Janata Dal delegation went to the Election Commission and demanded that the Commission conduct a periodic "process audit" of the entire election process by independent auditors or the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).In its letter to the electoral body, the BJD also demanded to make such a report public as is being done in several countries where democratic elections are held.
"We had mentioned in our earlier Memorandum that discrepancies indicated therein were unusual and showed that there was either machine (EVM) error or manual error (during data entry) or process error or a combination of all these. Since doubts have been raised in the minds of voters about conduct of free and fair elections on account of such discrepancies, which further get strengthened due to non-furnishing of Forms 17C Part I & II despite repeated written requests since last seven months, the BJD would like to suggest/demand the following in the interest of free and fair elections in the country," the party said.
"The Election Commission should conduct a periodic 'process audit' of the entire election process by independent auditors or the CAG and make such report public as is being done in several countries where democratic elections are held," the BJD said.
It also demanded that a mechanism be developed for involving citizen groups in co-monitoring the election process from inception to the end.