Election Commission : CEC Rebuffs Influencing Charge, Hails World Record 642 Million Voters ; Says Postal Ballots Count First ; Responds To ‘laapata gentlemen’ Memes On Social Media

Picture : ANI / X

Citing the Conduct of Election Rules, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the count of postal ballots will start first across all counting centres and asserted that there was “no doubt about it”.

Responding to questions at a press conference as reported by PTI , he said after half-an-hour of the start of the postal ballot count, the counting of votes recorded in the electronic voting machines will commence.

CEC Rajiv Kumar says, “We have created a world record of 642 million voters. This is 1.5 times voters of all G7 countries and 2.5 times voters of 27 countries in EU.”

The Election Commission of India gives a standing ovation to all voters who took part in Lok Sabha elections 2024.

A delegation of the opposition parties had on Sunday met the Commission to demand that postal ballot count should start first and the results of postal ballots should be announced first.

“Rules clearly state (Rule 54A) that postal ballot count will start first. On all centres in the country it will start first, no doubt about it. After half-an-hour we start the EVM count. So, there are three countings which are happening simultaneously — it happened in the 2019 elections, it happened in all the assembly polls held thereafter. It happened yesterday also in case of Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim assembly (vote count). We can’t change anything mid course. Why can’t we change, because it is compliant with the rules,” he said.

He said the postal ballot count and then the EVM count and finally the marching of VVPT slips with EVM results will continue.

In majority of the booths, the number of postal ballot is less. It will automatically end first, he pointed out.

Since 2019, VVPAT (paper-trail machine) slips from five randomly selected polling stations per assembly constituency (or segment in cases of Lok Sabha seats) are matched with the EVM count for greater transparency.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar referred to various memes doing rounds on social media, describing the Election Commission as ‘laapata gentlemen’, asserting that he and fellow commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Sing Sandhu were “never out” and were “always here”.

Social media users had targeted the Commission for allegedly being absent amid the model code violations by top leaders during campaign for the Lok Sabha elections.

The memes were based on a recent film titled ‘Laapata Ladies’.

Addressing a press conference on the eve of the counting of votes on Tuesday, Kumar said in a lighter vein that now people will see memes on the social media with a tag line that ‘laapata gentlemen’ are back.

“We were never out, we were always here. We chose to interact with you through our press notes. This was the first time we issued close to a 100 press notes and advisories all put together,” he said.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar dared the opposition to share evidence of allegations that returning officers and district magistrates were influenced to vitiate the poll process so the panel could take action against them.