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The PRO of each polling station will directly enter voter turnout on the new ECINET App every two hours on polling day
The new initiative will reduce the time lag in the update of the approximate polling trends. This comes ahead of the Bihar assembly polls, scheduled for later this year. (Photo: PTI file)
There will be no more delay in voter turnout announcement by the Election Commission of India (ECI) as the poll body has allowed the Presiding Officer (PRO) of each polling station to directly enter voter turnout on the new ECINET App every two hours.
The new initiative will reduce the time lag in the update of the approximate polling trends. This comes ahead of the Bihar assembly polls, scheduled for later this year.
“The Election Commission of India is now introducing a streamlined, technology-driven system to provide timely updates on the approximate voter turnout percentage trends. This new process significantly reduces the time lag associated with the earlier manual reporting methods,” an official statement reads.
The initiative is among the reforms introduced by the Commission, under the leadership of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
What The Rule Says
Under the statutory framework of Rule 49S of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, Presiding Officers (PROs) are required to furnish Form 17C, detailing the account of votes recorded, to polling agents, who are nominated by the candidates and are present at the polling station at the close of poll.
While this legal requirement remains unchanged, the process of updating the VTR App, which had evolved as a facilitative, non-statutory mechanism to keep the public informed of the approximate voter turnout percentage trends is being streamlined to ensure faster updation.
What Has Changed?
Under this new initiative, the PRO of each polling station will directly enter voter turnout on the new ECINET App every two hours on polling day in order to reduce the time lag in the update of the approximate polling trends. This will be automatically aggregated at the constituency level.
The approximate voting percentage trends will continue to be published every two hours as before.
Also at the close of the polls, the PRO will immediately enter the voter turnout data on ECINET before they leave the polling station. This will reduce the delays and ensure that the approximate percentage of votes polled will be available on the updated VTR App constituency-wise after the close of polls subject to network connectivity.
Where mobile networks are unavailable, entries can be made offline and synced once connectivity is restored. This updated VTR App will become an integral part of ECINET before the Bihar elections.
So far, voter turnout data was collected manually by Sector Officers and relayed to Returning Officers (ROs) via phone calls, SMS, or messaging apps.
This information was aggregated every two hours and uploaded to the Voter Turnout (VTR) App.
The polling percentage trends were often updated hours later, based on physical records arriving late in the night or even the next day, leading to delays of 4–5 hours or more, which led to public misperceptions.
During the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, this issue was raised by a number of political parties as on some occasions, the voter turnout was announced the next day due to the delay. The reform, ahead of the Bihar polls, will help the commission in announcing the voter turnout on time.
Nivedita Singh is a data journalist and covers the Election Commission, Indian Railways and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. She has nearly seven years of experience in the news media. She tweets @nived…Read More
Nivedita Singh is a data journalist and covers the Election Commission, Indian Railways and Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. She has nearly seven years of experience in the news media. She tweets @nived… Read More
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