Election Commission dismisses Congress charge of 'slowdown' in Haryana Assembly elections data updates

The Election Commission of India dismissed the Congress party's charge of "unexplained slowdown" in updating results of Haryana assembly election on the poll panel's web portal on Tuesday, stating that it "unequivocally rejects" the attempt to "surreptitiously give credence to irresponsible, unfounded and uncorroborated narratives".

Responding to a memorandum on the issue from Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, it said that counting in both Haryana and J&K took place in the presence of candidates, observers and micro-observers as per the statutory scheme and provisions.

In a memorandum to the ECI, Ramesh had alleged that between 9 and 11 am, there was unexplained slowdown in updating Haryana results on the ECI's website and that this allowed for "bad faith actors to spin narratives that undermine the process".


"Our fear is also that such narratives can then be used by these mala fide actors to influence processes where counting is still underway, i.e. in most of the counting centres", Ramesh wrote requesting the ECI to issue directions to officials to update the website with "true and accurate figures" so that false news and malicious narratives could be countered immediately.

Rejecting the allegation, the poll panel said that there was nothing on record to substantiate the "ill-founded allegation of slowdown in updating of results". "Your memorandum also does not bring out any contrary facts as to the delay at any of the constituencies in Haryana or J&K," the ECI said in a reply to Ramesh.

It also put out some of the data from the results website of the ECI to show the speed of round-wise updation by returning officers and said it hoped that this would help allay fears.

Pointing out that about 25 rounds across constituencies were being updated every five minutes, the poll panel said that this showed that the counting process was being done in a speedy manner.

The ECI also referred to a similar memorandum by the Congress party on Lok Sabha election counting day, June 4, which was found "ill-founded" and dismissed by the commission.