It’s been almost 10 hours since counting began for the Lok Sabha elections. However, we are still hours away from a final and decisive result. At the time of publishing this report, the Election Commission had announced results for 197 of the 543.
It seems the Election Commission is going too slow even for the Congress, with veteran leader Jairam Ramesh questioning the delay in the process. Some Congress leaders even met with Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and raised the issue of alleged slow counting of votes especially in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
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But has the voting been slower than usual? What’s the process of counting votes? When can you expect the final results?
What is the Congress’ complaint?
As the counting progressed, the Congress’ general secretary Jairam Ramesh questioned the long wait for the results. He also implied that the Election Commission may have received orders to slow down the counting of votes.
In a series of posts on X, he wrote: “Why are the results not being updated at that speed on the Election Commission website and various channels? Why is the process so slow for the last two hours?”
“Where did the orders to slow down come from?” he questioned.
Ramesh also pointed out that there was “much delay” in the counting of votes for seats in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, where the ruling party faced tough contests from the Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (United), respectively.
“Why is there so much delay in counting of votes in many seats of UP and Bihar? This is totally unusual,” he said.
Later, news agency PTI also reported that a Congress delegation, including Abhishek Singhvi and Salman Khurshid, met with poll officials and asked the poll body give real time figures on its website after every round of counting in all the constituencies.
But has there been a delay in counting votes?
The simple answer to this question is no. This is the normal pace of counting with the Election Commission refusing to declare a winner in any constituency until the final vote has been counted. For larger constituencies, this could well mean that the counting goes well into the night. An Indian Express report states that before the introduction of electronic voting machines (EVMs), the results could take even as long as three days to be declared.
As per counting norms, a lead of 20,000 to 30,000 votes is considered a stable margin. A margin of over 50,000 is considered undefeatable. However, this election, at 1 pm there were close to 100 seats in
UP
, Bihar,
West Bengal
and
Maharashtra
margins were less than 10,000 votes.
In such a situation where the contest is running neck and neck, the officials will take longer as the lead could switch with every round of counting.
So, when should we expect the final result?
The final result could come in after 7 pm when 15 rounds of counting have been completed. For many seats, however, counting could continue even into the night. During the 2018 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections, counting had continued until 9 pm.
How exactly are votes counted?
Vote counting
is a long process. In each constituency, a designated location is provided for the counting process. The votes are counted in a big hall consisting of 14 tables. An Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) is in charge of EVM counting at one table, while the RO counts postal ballots at another. The counting happens in rounds, which are referred to as leads on news channels.
Micro-observers and counting agents from various political parties ensure continuous monitoring and immediate addressing of any irregularities at the counting centres. Once all votes are tallied, the results are publicly announced by the Returning Officer (RO) in the presence of all candidates and their agents.
With inputs from agencies
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