AAP grows suspicious as poll officials take 24 hours to declare final vote percentage
New Delhi: Nearly 24 hours after polling ended in the Delhi Assembly election, the Election Commission on Sunday announced that the final voter turnout was 62.59 per cent, five per cent less than in 2015.
It said data compilation took time as it had to ensure accuracy.
After elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly were held on Saturday, poll officials said there had been a turnout of 61.46 per cent, subject to revision.
With no final word from the Election Commission till 4 pm Sunday, Aam Aadmi Paety (AAP) chief and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter, saying it was "absolutely shocking" that the poll panel was not coming out with the final voting figures.
"What is EC doing? Why are they not releasing poll turnout figures, several hours after polling?" Kejriwal tweeted.
The figure of 62.59 per cent was finally released at a press conference at 7.15 pm by chief electoral officer Ranbir Singh.
Delhi recorded a voter turnout of 67.47 per cent in 2015.
Singh said the returning officers took care to ensure data accuracy. "They did not want to speculate and wanted to give the exact figures.... So, returning officers worked throughout the night to check data to ensure it is accurate," he said.
He said there were more than 13,700 polling stations in the national capital and they had to add data from each station and ensure that every vote was accounted for.
The highest voting of 71.6 per cent was reported from Ballimaran constituency, while the lowest turnout was in Delhi Cantonment at 45.4 per cent.
Okhla recorded 58.84 per cent voting. Shaheen Bagh and Jamia Nagar, where protests against the amended Citizenship Act are going on, fall in this constituency.
Seelampur recorded a turnout of 71.2 per cent.
Exit polls on Saturday predicted an easy win for AAP against the BJP and the Congress.
The Aam Aadmi Party said the delay in announcing of final polling figures was suspicious and asked if the poll panel was waiting for the BJP's nod.
"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," Kejriwal's deputy Manish Sisodia asked
AAP leader Sanjay Singh alleged "something is cooking" and "a game is being played secretly".
"This is perhaps the first time in the 70-year history of country that the Election Commission is not ready to release the final figure of voter turnout. The entire country and Delhi have been waiting for the polling percentage since yesterday," he said.
