Missing footage, EVM fiddling forced Falta re-polls, says ECI

In a communication to the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has “flagged allegations of voter intimidation, use of black tapes over buttons on ballot units to block votes and unauthorised presence inside booths,” in reports from observers as reasons for fresh polls the Falta Assembly constituency. All 285 polling stations in the constituency will go to re-polls on May 21, with counting scheduled for May 24.

In its communication, the poll body said, considering the history of violence and intimidation and the partial/non-availability of footage, there appeared to be deliberate interference with the poll process. The observers' report has also pointed out that the Polling Button on the Ballot Units of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were found to have been marked with perfumes to identify the electors who voted for a particular candidate fielded by a particular party.

“As many as 22.82 per cent electors, i.e., 53,967 out of the total 2,36,444 electors, were enrolled for voting at these polling stations. Therefore, this tampering with the EVMs had compromised the integrity of the votes recorded and made it impossible to ascertain the mandate of the electorate. Moreover, the reports have also indicated that the possibility that similar events have happened in other polling stations also cannot be ruled out as video footage for most of the polling station were either not available or available with intermittent periods of time,” the ECI said in its communication.

While remedial steps were taken upon receipt of complaints, a substantial percentage of polling had already taken place by then. The Complaints were received between 1.15 pm to 4.10 pm and action taken reports were sent at various periods after that.

By 1 pm 58.04 per cent of votes were cast, 74.86 per cent by 3 pm and 86.71 per cent by 5 pm.

The poll body said EVMs in as many as 60 polling stations were found to have been tampered with in the above noted manner. These 60 polling stations amounted to 21 per cent of the total number of polling stations in the constituency.

“The State Observer, West Bengal has issued a direction in terms of Section 20B(2) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 to the Returning Officer for 144-Falta Assembly Constituency to stop counting of votes and has further recommended re-poll in 144-Falta Assembly Constituency,” it said.

Election observers and the returning officer confirmed that the tampering and violations had “vitiated the poll,” making results unreliable and necessitating a full repoll due to the large-scale impact of the irregularities. Many polling stations saw long gaps in coverage of video feeds, making verification impossible, while storage chips were either empty, contained unrelated election footage or showed systematic gaps during peak voting hours, the report said.