State Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo has lauded the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls and the by-poll for the Vilavancode Assembly segment, describing them as “flawless” with zero cases of repolling. The elections, held for 39 constituencies in the state, witnessed a significant turnout of 69.76% of the 6.23 crore eligible voters on April 19.Sahoo emphasized the peaceful conduct of the polls, attributing it to the intact law and order situation in the state. He commended the overall electoral process, noting a significant improvement in the quality of polling with each successive election since his appointment as CEO in 2018.
Responding to concerns about discrepancies in voting percentage data, particularly a gap of nearly 3 percentage points in overall turnout and a gap of 9 to 13 percentage points in three constituencies in Chennai, Sahoo clarified that projection data generated every two hours on polling day was based on samples collected through the voters turnout monitoring system. He explained that the turnout figures were calculated based on responses received from Presiding Officers at regular intervals, a method adopted since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Sahoo acknowledged that feeding data into the monitoring system was not mandatory, leading to varying levels of participation from Presiding Officers. He emphasized that the final turnout data uploaded by Returning Officers (ENCORE data) was authoritative, despite potential discrepancies in the sample data, particularly from Chennai South, Chennai North, and Chennai Central constituencies.
In a bid to maintain vigilance and prevent any post-election irregularities, flying squads and static surveillance teams will be deployed along the inter-state borders of Tamil Nadu with Karnataka, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh until June 4, as per the directive of the Election Commission, leading up to the counting of votes on June 4.