The Centre on Friday voted in favour of the existing practice of booth-wise counting of ballots over using totaliser machines in elections, saying it helps candidates and political parties in improving their performance.
In an affidavit before a Bench led by Justice Dipak Misra, the government said the Election Commission’s proposal for using totaliser machines to count votes had been referred to a team of Ministers headed by the Union Home Minister for examining its feasibility.
In its affidavit, the government said the team of Ministers held its final meeting on September 7, 2016 and decided the issue.
“The team of ministers has come to the conclusion that revelation of booth-wise votes polled by a candidate would perhaps be more beneficial since it would facilitate the candidates and parties to find out the areas where they have shown better result and where they have not shown good result so as to work more for that area by bringing more developmental activities to improve their performance in future elections,” the Centre said in its affidavit.
The government was responding to a PIL petition filed by Punjab-based advocate Yogesh Gupta., who has contended that “the uniform way of declaration of result for the entire constituency as a whole would bring balanced growth and funding and reduce cases fuelled by political vendetta, ill will and hatred”.
The petition claimed that “the declaration of result of every polling booth strikes at the root of right to privacy attached to voting.”
