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A diary from the wall of Raghunandan TR, former Joint Secretary at Govt of India.
As part of my series of posts on documenting what happens during an election, I focus here on the build up to the vote counting process and what happens on counting day.
The Voting Day Complain: After the voting on 12 May, the next day we attended a briefing by the Returning Officer (RO) and the ECI Observer regarding the arrangements made for counting of votes. We also got an opportunity to inform the returning officer and the observer of the various irregularities and intimidation that we saw on the day of voting. The Congress election agent constantly interrupted us when we complained about the Congress candidate’s vehicle being escorted by the police into one of the polling venues, and the various instances where we had pointed out the houses in which voter ID cards were being distributed and bribes being paid for voting. We requested the RO and the observer to take action against such violations of the code of conduct.
To my question on the number of cases in which VVPAT slips would be compared to the EVM votes tally, the ECI Observer stated that she would be cross checking two machines in every round of counting, chosen at random. I was happy with that reply, because that would cover 13.5 percent of the machines used.
Counting Agents: On the next day, we applied for the authorization of counting agents. Since there were 14 tables in the counting hall, we were allowed 14 counting agents. As the role of the election agent ceases with the cessation of voting, I had to separately apply again for personally assuming the role of the Counting agent.
Independent Candidates Cashing Money: While obtaining our ID cards from the RO’s office, I witnessed an intriguing negotiation. Most of the independent candidates were selling their authorizations for entry into the counting hall, to the three main parties. I saw election agents of these parties entering their representatives’ names into the ID cards of the independent candidates. In all probability this was done for a cash consideration.
That brings me to a passing observation about independents. Many of them stand for elections only to make money, from a variety of actions. Some have voter bases of about 100 or 200 voters and they take money to withdraw their candidature, or retire in favor of one or the other mainstream candidate. Many sell their access rights to election booths through election agents and booth level agents and to the counting hall through counting agents. Since the deposit for an election is only Rs. 10000, they must be making a handsome profit from their independent candidature.
16% Failure Rate: I collected from the RO, a list of 33 polling stations where machines had failed; (EVMs, Ballot units or VVPATs). That in my view is a high failure rate; of nearly 16 percent. It fortifies my belief that the machine based system is not foolproof. Even if voting machines cannot be manipulated, which is also a matter of discussion, a 16 percent failure shows that the system is not durable. What I saw did not inspire confidence.
Counting Day Hustle: Counting day was mayhem. Even though we from the AAP were amongst the first to enter the counting hall, I had to leave as some of our team turned up late, and I had their ID cards with me. Once I left the venue, the police inexplicably barred access for some time, citing orders. Finally, the gathered crowd of counting agents of all candidates started getting restive and tempers got frayed. There was much pushing and shoving and finally, when I got pushed to the metal detector, I asked why the police could not stand a little away to enable us to pass easily. That invited an assault by the police, who yanked me out of the line and confined me for some time, just to ‘teach me a lesson’ for asking him questions. The officer’s name was Shivaswami. I saw him as much a victim as a rude face of the government. When systems break down, citizens face the brunt of violence.
Once we made it to the hall, I found that my fears were true. There were 14 counting tables in the hall, arranged in two rows of seven, about 5 feet away from the walls. The Candidate could enter the counting hall at any time and there was a special area for their seating, behind the RO’s table. However, the counting agents were crammed into a chicken run; a metal mesh cage that ran along the wall and enabled a view of each counting table. This is not a place for the claustrophobic; each table was to have 18 counting agents.
Party Agents as Independent Candidates: As I feared, the party agents masquerading as agents of independent candidates were occupying the front seat and denying viewing access to those like us, representing parties. I complained to the RO and immediately, the agents began to turn hostile and tried to intimidate me. One person warned me that the independent’s agent sitting in the front row was a corporator. I told the RO that the front row had to be reserved according to the rules for the national party agents – namely the Congress, BJP and the JDS, and then behind them would be the other parties, such as the AAP, and the independents were to come behind us. The RO upheld my view and directed the independent agents to get up from the front row and give these seats to the Congress, BJP and JDS. You could have cut the tension with a knife, but I did not care less.
Once counting started though, the tension eased off. Soon the corporator that I thought might have even assaulted me, became the friendliest of companions. This is the best thing about politics; people turn hostile and friendly in a twinkling of an eye. Grudges are not held for long.
Point of Reference: The reason why people saw value in me – they even offered me a seat in the front row after about 2 or 3 rounds of counting – was because I maintain data very meticulously. I kept two penciled sheets of paper, one for the cumulative tally of counting going on on my table (Table 14) and the overall tally (the sum of all tables) which was being maintained by the RO. I shared my data with the other agents. After all, they are doing a job, like me. Soon, even as they maintained their data, I became their point of reference.
Counting Cycle: Now to come to the actual counting; each machine is held up for us to see, when it is taken out of its FRP box. Then the seals binding the hinged opening on the box are broken in front of us. Following that, the paper seal blocking the result button, is torn off, to expose the button. Then the result button is pressed. The machine goes into its cycle of verification, following which the result is seen, candidate by candidate, on the display. This is held up for everybody to see and note down. The entire process takes from 10 to 15 minutes for each counting cycle.
The Mismatching Machine: There was only one blip in the entire counting at my table (Table 14) that I noticed. In the fourth round, when the machine for polling booth no 55 (Community Hall, Domlur) was counted, the last three digits of the number of the machine as seen on its label, was 104. However, the last three digits of the machine number that appeared on its LED display, was ‘116’. The result also did not get displayed, in spite of several attempts by the counting table presiding officer. Finally, a BEL employee was called in and in a quick sleight of hand, he extracted the display of the result. Of the 272 votes cast in the booth, the BJP got 114, the JDS 76, the Congress 98 and the AAP 19 (with the remaining votes going to the others). I found it suspicious that the machine’s label number did not correspond to the number on the display. Certainly, this led to the suspicion that the machine may have been replaced.
Candidate Exit: Voting halls are always tense when counting starts. However, when trends are set and if the battle is not a seesaw one, losers make a quiet exit from the scene. At around the fourth round, I saw the JDS people leave. They had poured in money during the campaign, but the fact that their candidate was thwarted from receiving the BJP ticket and took on the JDS persona as a second thought, did not help their cause. After the 9th round, it was the turn of the BJP team to make their exit. The polling booths numbered from 0 to 120 was where they fancied their chances. Once these were counted and they were trailing behind the Congress by a tally of 5000 votes, they did not see any point in hanging around.
No One Left from AAP: The Congress team , including the proxy congress agents masquerading as the agents of independent candidates, heaved a sigh of relief when they reached the tenth round. From then onward they believed they would win. This was their ‘ilaakha’, as they said. We from the AAP were nowhere in contention, but we did not flinch from the task of watching our hopes being dashed. None of us left, because we were also keen to gain from the conversations around us. By now, the counting agents of the Congress at my table were jubilant and their indiscretion was showing. They openly discussed how they ‘arranged’ for voters to come in the last minute, how they outwitted the JDS, which seemed to be more adept than the BJP in bribery, at least in our constituency.
The Trust: One of them even said that the people of Shanthinagar breached the trust of the JDS, by not voting for the JDS even though they took bribes. That was an interesting understanding of the idea of trust. Its not for the people to trust the candidate for whom they vote, but for the candidate to trust the voter whom they bribe to vote for them. Breach of trust is when bribed voters don’t vote, not when candidates do U turns after being elected.
Most people commiserated with the AAP for doing so poorly, and many said that while they favored Renuka as a candidate, we could never win unless we ‘managed’ voters’ a euphemism for corruption and intimidation.
EVM VVPAT Checks: When it was all over bar the shouting, the EVM VVPAT checks were undertaken under the control and superintendence of the ECI Observer. Through drawal of lots, two EVMs were chosen for checking, from polling stations 136 and 143 respectively, In both cases the manual counts of VVPAT slips tallied with the electronic result. That only two machines were verified with VVPATs, was at variance to the assurance given by the ECI Observer that she would verify two machines in each round of counting. It did not make sense at all. This is again a grey area to be corrected.
At the end of the counting, the hall was only filled with Congress counting agents and the AAP counting agents. Job done, I went across to Mr. N.A. Haris and congratulated him for his victory and wished him a successful tenure as MLA. He accepted my wishes graciously.
Original post can be read here on Facebook. Read more from Raghunandan TR Diary.
Read More: The vote splitting argument