New ECINET platform used during bypolls helped with faster update of voter turnout trends: ECI

The bypolls in four States held earlier this month saw the use of the new ECINET platform that helped in faster uploading of voter turnout trends and publishing of Index Cards within 72 hours of the declaration of election results by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The Index Card is a non-statutory, post-election statistical reporting format aimed to promote accessibility of election-related data at the constituency level for all stakeholders. It contains data across multiple dimensions such as candidates, electors, votes polled, votes counted, party-wise and candidate-wise vote share, gender-based voting patterns, regional variations, and performance of political parties.

Under the new system, most data fields in the Index Card are auto-filled using ECINET inputs. Before the introduction of ECINET, the publication of Index Cards used to take several days, weeks, or even months as the data was filled and verified manually by the officials, the EC said in a statement.

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Another major achievement during the bypolls was uploading of the voter turnout trends directly by the presiding officers on ECINET as against the earlier manual process. This enabled the quick sharing of information, increased transparency and a significant reduction in time lag in publishing voter turnout trends, the statement said.

Through ECINET, it was ensured that the presiding officers uploaded the final turnout figures before leaving their respective polling stations, which resulted in much faster availability of voter turnout trends on ECINET for the public. The streamlined, technology-driven system was able to provide timely updates on the approximate voter turnout percentage trends during the bypolls.

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Faster polling trends have gained importance with many Opposition parties casting doubts on the sudden surge in voting after a particular time.

The recent by-elections were held in five Assembly Constituencies of Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab and West Bengal on June 19, while the results were declared on June 23.

The poll body had earlier on May 4, announced the development of the new one-stop platform, ECINET, integrating over 40 of EC’s existing mobile and web applications. The bypolls witnessed the successful implementation of some of the modules of ECINET, which will become fully operational in the coming weeks.