The Lok Sabha elections ended last week when the seventh and final phase of polling concluded on Saturday. While interacting with the media on Monday, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar acknowledged that polling amid a heatwave and around weekends could have been avoided.
Sharing his learnings from these elections, he said the polls should have been completed a month ago.
“Elections should have been completed a month earlier. They shouldn’t have been held in such hot weather. It is a big election that involves a lot of forces. There is a lot of movement. We cannot reduce the time taken for the process but it could have been done earlier instead of in such heat,” Kumar said in Hindi.
The temperatures in several cities in May hovered close to 50 degrees Celsius and a large part of the country was facing a heatwave.
The CEC also acknowledged that holding elections on Fridays and Mondays could have been avoided.
“This is also a part of our learning. The elections should not be held on Fridays or Mondays as it gives a lot of breaks. We followed this in assembly elections but this (Lok Sabha polls) is such a big exercise. Sometimes there are festivals, sometimes exams, sometimes holidays, sometimes it is the movement of the force. We couldn’t do it but theoretically, it is correct that we should have done it,” he added.
News18 had reported how these factors resulted in a drop in voter turnout across various seats in the country, particularly in major cities.
The average voter turnout in most of the phases was below the 2019 numbers. Except for the fourth phase, where the turnout touched 69.17%, in all the others, the figure was below 67%. In the fifth and sixth phases, the average voter turnout was just 62.2% and 63.37%, respectively.
It is believed by many observers that if the weather had been better, the polls would have seen higher turnouts.
Similarly, polling around the weekend, which allowed one additional holiday to the working class, also gave the option to head out for vacations.
The CEC also said that the poll body was not prepared for the false narratives played against it. He said there is a pattern used against the Election Commission of India in every election, citing examples of issues raised against electoral rolls, voter turnout, and EVMs.
“We failed to understand the fake narratives that were going on during the elections. But we have understood it now…We have to prepare next time to fight the fake narratives,” Kumar added.
The counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections will be done on June 4.
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