New Delhi: For the first time in history, the Election Commission of India (ECI) conducted a press conference on 3 June, just a day before the critical vote counting for the Lok Sabha elections of 2024. Traditionally, deputy election commissioners would interact with the media following each phase of polling, a practice that was last observed during the 2019 parliamentary elections.
The Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, addressed the media at 12:30 pm, stirring anticipation as the country awaits the results. The extensive seven-phase voting process, which began on 19 April, concluded on 1 June. Vote counting is scheduled to commence at 8 am on 4 June and will continue until all votes across the 543 constituencies are tallied.
During the press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar responded to the "Laapataa Gentlemen" memes circulating on social media, which suggested the commissioners were absent during the election process. "Social media meme pages are calling us ‘Laapataa Gentlemen’. But we were never laapataa (missing); we were always here," he asserted.
Kumar highlighted the impressive voter turnout, noting that India set a world record with 64.2 crore voters, including 31.2 crore women. He emphasised the extensive involvement of over 68,000 monitoring teams and 1.5 crore polling and security personnel in the election process. Remarkably, only 39 repolls were conducted in the 2024 elections, compared to 540 in 2019.
In response to concerns from opposition leaders about the voting process, the ECI has assured that paper ballots will be counted and announced before revealing the Electronic Voting Machines' (EVMs) outcomes. Kumar also addressed the "fake narrative" regarding faulty voter lists and turnout data, stating that all issues raised by multi-party delegations had been thoroughly addressed.
The ECI is committed to ensuring that future general elections conclude by the end of April to avoid extreme weather conditions, as demonstrated by the current heatwave which claimed the lives of 33 on-duty poll workers. The Commission successfully controlled the menace of deep fakes and AI-generated synthetic content during the elections. Over 90 per cent of the 495 complaints of Model Code of Conduct violations were resolved during the 2024 general elections.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar reaffirmed the robustness of the Indian electoral system and the ECI's dedication to transparency and fairness in the election process. The nation now eagerly awaits the final results, set to be revealed on 4 June 2024.
