Assembly election results: Pakistan declared results for national election in one day. What is taking India so long?
On July 25 this year, Pakistanis queued up to vote outside polling stations to elect their Prime Minister and a government to represent them. Voting started around 8am PST (Pakistan Standard Time) and ended by 6pm. By 9pm the same evening, results started trickling in, making it clear by midnight that a coalition government headed by Imran Khan had grabbed power in the terror-torn, ethnically divided and corruption-ridden country.
In India, elections to five state Assemblies were held in a phased manner, starting November 12, with the final phase being held on December 7. We are in the third day since, but we are still not clear about who's won it.
Yes, we do have the exit poll results but even the pollsters involved in the process can’t claim with 100 per cent certainty that the results will hold on December 11 — the day the actual results are declared.
Pakistan is a smaller country with a population of only about 20 crore, but the combined population of the five states — Rajasthan (6.89 crore), Madhya Pradesh (7.33 crore), Chhattisgarh (2.55 crore), Telangana (3.5 crore) and Mizoram (11.2 lakh) — that voted in the latest round of election is just about 20.5 crore people.
In 2017, while voting to the five states — Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand — ended on March 8, we got to know the results only on March 11.
So, why is it that we in India, using the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), which are technologically advanced and should involve a faster result delivery, keep results on hold for so long?
Interestingly, it takes just about 20-30 seconds for the machine to give the number of votes cast for each candidate sequentially in a particular polling station. All it takes for the counting supervisors and counting assistants is to take the result down on paper and keep adding the figures.
It is for this reason that it hardly takes time for results to be declared once counting begins.
Remember how, at one point, we had to stay up through the night to know the results as ballot papers were counted at a snail’s pace?
Surprisingly, now in the days of EVMs too, we have to wait for days for EVM machines to be opened and results to be declared.
All that happens after you vote
After completion of the poll, the EVMs are sealed. Polling agents put their signatures on the seal.
The machines are then transported to a secure storage centre called a strong room. These strong rooms are guarded 24x7 with several layers of security. Polling agents can go up to the strong room during transportation of EVMs.
Candidates can put their own seals on the strong rooms where polled EVMs are stored after the poll. The EC also allows representatives to camp in front of strong rooms.
At the final stage, the EVMs are brought to the counting centres and unique IDs of the seals and control unit are shown to representatives of candidates before the counting begins.
The counting staff and counting agents take note of the votes cast for each candidate sequentially.
However, guarding the store rooms involves the use of a lot of manpower. If counting is be held earlier, it would help to deploy the same resources elsewhere for other important things.
Also, there is a whole controversy over how EVMs could be rigged and results manipulated even. Not going in for an early declaration of results just adds unnecessary fuel to such speculations.
If Pakistan can do it, so can India.
Every election in India is important and given how politically aware we are as a country, it is a known fact that we put everything on hold till we know our election results and until we have carried an full examination and analyses of these results.
It is understandable that we have staggered elections, given the law and order scenarious and logistical concerns — but it is not understandable why our results should be kept on hold for so long.
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