Kharge Slams Govt: Regarding the changes in voting rules, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Modi government has attacked the independence of the Election Commission (ECI). In a post on X on Sunday morning, he said – First the Modi government removed the CJI from the panel that appoints Election Commissioners and now they are trying to hide election information from the public. This is a well-planned conspiracy of the government.
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Whenever Congress wrote to Election Commission regarding deletion of names from voter list and transparency in EVM, ECI responded in a disrespectful tone and did not even acknowledge our complaints. In fact, on December 20, the Central Government had changed the election rules to prevent the public disclosure of certain electronic documents like CCTV of polling stations, webcasting footage and video recordings of candidates.
Officials said that using AI, CCTV footage of polling stations can be manipulated to spread fake narratives. Even after the changes, these will be available to candidates. Others can go to court to get them.
The rule changed due to the decision of Punjab-Haryana High Court
On the recommendation of the Election Commission (EC), the Law Ministry on December 20 amended Rule 93(2)(A) of The Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. Rule 93 says- “All documents related to the election will be publicly available.” It has been changed to “All documents related to the election will be publicly available ‘as per the rules'”.
In a case, the Punjab-Haryana High Court had directed to share the documents related to the Haryana assembly elections with the petitioner. In this, CCTV footage was also considered under Rule 93 (2). However, the Election Commission had said that this rule does not include electronic records. The rule has been changed to remove this ambiguity.
EC said – there is no rule to make electronic records public
The EC said that documents such as nomination forms, appointment of election agents, election results and election account statements are mentioned in the Conduct of Elections Rule. Electronic documents such as CCTV footage, webcasting footage and video recordings of candidates during the code of conduct do not come under its purview.
A former EC official said that CCTV coverage and webcasting of polling stations is not done under the Conduct of Election Rules but is done for transparency.
At the same time, an official of the Commission said that many such cases have come up where electronic records were sought citing the rules. The amendment ensures that only the documents mentioned in the rules are made public. Other documents which are not mentioned in the rules should not be allowed to be made public.
Congress said- will soon give a legal challenge
After the rule change, the Congress on Saturday targeted the Election Commission. The Congress accused the Commission of destroying the integrity of the electoral process and weakening transparency.
Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote on X- The integrity of India’s electoral process has declined rapidly in recent times. Now clear evidence of this has come to the fore. Instead of following the Punjab-Haryana High Court’s direction to share all information related to the elections, the Commission is changing the rules.
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