The Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday hit out at the Election Commission for not announcing the final polling percentage even 24 hours after the polling was over. The Chief Electoral Officer announced the figure at a press conference at 7 p.m.
The Chief Elector Officer said the total turnout took long to collect and calculate and hence took time to be shared.
“Absolutely shocking. What is EC doing? Why are they not releasing poll turnout figures, several hours after polling?” AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said on Twitter commenting on the delay.
The last voting percentage given by the commission on Saturday night was 61.46%. The voting in the national capital to elect a new government ended on Saturday.
Hitting out at the Election Commission, deputy Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Manish Sisodia asked the poll panel if it was yet to receive the final voter turnout figure from the BJP office.
“BJP leaders are giving the voter turnout figures and on the other hand the Election Commission has not been able to give the final voting percentage 24 hours after polling got over,” Mr. Sisodia said in a tweet in Hindi.
“EC is saying they are compiling data. What’s going on? Are you waiting for the BJP office to give you the final figure?” Mr. Sisodia said.
Senior AAP leader Sanjay Singh, addressing the media in the afternoon, said the party feared a deep conspiracy. “Till now, whenever the elections have been held, the Election Commission used to declare the percentage of the voting almost immediately. It has been 24 hours since the voting of the Delhi Assembly completed, but the Election Commission is not ready to announce the voting percentage. This is pointing towards a deep conspiracy,” Mr. Singh said. The EC should explain the delay. “This is the first time in the history of 70 years, the Election Commission is not ready to announce the voting percentage,” alleged Mr. Singh.
“Any election, be it Lok Sabha or Vidhan Sabha, the EC used to announce the voting percentage on the same day. I remember that when the elections were held by the ballot papers, the Commission used to announce the voting percentage even at such times. But for the first time in the history of 70 years, such a strange thing happened,” Mr. Singh said.
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Final polling figure of Lok Sabha elections is released on the same day, but in case of Delhi which has just 70 assembly constituencies, the poll panel is taking so much time to come out with the voter turnout percentage. It has been 24 hours but the poll panel is yet to release its official statement, Mr. Singh said, adding that the EC should should tell why there has been so much delay.
Exit polls for the Delhi assembly election on Saturday forecast a comfortable victory for the ruling AAP.
The Times Now-Ipsos exit polls predicted that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will retain his chair with the AAP winning 44 seats against 26 for the BJP.
The Republic-Jan ki Baat survey gave the AAP 48-61 seats and the BJP 9-21 seats.
The TV9 Bharatvarsh-Cicero predicted 54 seats for the AAP, 15 for the BJP and one for the Congress.
The AAP had scored an overwhelming victory in the 2015 polls, winning 67 seats and reducing the BJP to three. Congress had drawn a blank.
(With PTI inputs)
