\n\tNEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India, long regarded as the impartial guardian of the world\u2019s largest democracy, is facing unprecedented scrutiny over its credibility and independence.
\n\tOpposition leaders and critics have alleged that large-scale rigging of elections is impacting the overall results of the vote.
\n\tThe ECI has denied all charges, the first against it in India\u2019s history.
\n\tHeading the charge is the leader of the opposition in New Delhi\u2019s parliament, Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party, who previously alleged that India\u2019s electronic voting machines are flawed.
\n\tNow Gandhi has accused the ECI of refusing to share digital voter records, detailing what he said was a list of errors after his supporters spent weeks combing through vast piles of registration lists by hand.<\/p>\n
\n\tGandhi, 55, said his party lost dozens of seats in the 2024 parliamentary elections because of vote rigging.
\n\tThe largest democratic exercise in human history across the country of 1.4 billion people was staggered over six weeks.
\n\tGandhi claimed that the ECI manipulated voter rolls to favor Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
\n\tModi, 74, won a historic third term last year but fell short of a majority.
\n\tThe alleged rigging involved a string of tactics, according to Gandhi.
\n\tHe said some people voted multiple times, citing bulk registrations from one dwelling and seemingly bogus addresses.
\n\tIn a presentation to reporters on August 7, Gandhi pointed to a parliamentary constituency his party narrowly lost as an \u201copen and shut\u201d example of the alleged irregularities.
\n\tOver 100,000 \u201cfake\u201d votes were cast in the constituency, he said, courtesy of duplicate voters.
\n\tHis Congress party lost the seat by just over 30,000 votes.
\n\t\u201cOur demand from the ECI is clear \u2014 be transparent and release digital voter rolls so that people and parties can audit them,\u201d Gandhi said.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe ECI has called Gandhi\u2019s accusation \u201cfalse and misleading.\u201d
\n\tIndia\u2019s chief election commissioner said they would \u201cnever\u201d back down from their constitutional duties.
\n\t\u201cPolitics is being done using the Election Commission… as a tool to target India\u2019s voters,\u201d Gyanesh Kumar told a news conference this month.
\n\t\u201cThe Election Commission wants to make it clear that it fearlessly stands rock-solid with all voters… without any discrimination and will continue to do so.\u201d
\n\tKumar also said those alleging fraud either need to furnish proof under oath or apologize.
\n\t\u201cAn affidavit must be submitted or an apology to the nation must be made \u2014 there is no third option.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tGandhi launched a month-long \u201cvoter rights\u201d rally in the key battleground state of Bihar on August 17, receiving enthusiastic public response.
\n\tThe allegations come ahead of elections in Bihar in October or November.
\n\tThe opposition alleged the ECI had embarked on a \u201cmass disenfranchisement\u201d exercise, after it gave voters in the state just weeks to prove their citizenship, requiring documents that few possess in a registration revamp.
\n\tIndia\u2019s top court stepped in last week, allowing a biometric ID most residents possess to be accepted in Bihar\u2019s voter registration.
\n\tThe \u201cSpecial Intensive Revision\u201d (SIR) of voter registration is set to be replicated across India.
\n\tGandhi called the exercise in Bihar the \u201cfinal conspiracy.\u201d
\n\tActivists have reported finding numerous living voters declared dead by election officials, and entire families struck off draft lists.
\n\tVoter verification in Bihar is scheduled to be completed by September 25, with the final list released five days later.
\n\t\u201cThey aim to steal the elections by adding new voters under the guise of SIR and removing existing voters,\u201d Gandhi said.
\n\tThe ECI has defended the registration revision, saying it is in part to avoid \u201cforeign illegal immigrants\u201d from voting.
\n\tMembers of Modi\u2019s BJP have long claimed that large numbers of undocumented Muslim migrants from neighboring Bangladesh have fraudulently entered India\u2019s electoral rolls.
\n\tCriticism mounted after the ECI replaced Bihar\u2019s machine-readable voter records with scanned image files that do not allow text searches.
\n\tCritics said the changes made detecting anomalies more time-consuming and prone to error.
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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