CEO, Odisha plays safe, replaces damning data with link to ECI site

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury

Bhubaneswar, June 15:

Days after odishasuntimes.com exposed glaring discrepancies in the polling data provided on the official websites of the Chief Electoral Office (CEO), Odisha and that of the Election Commission of India (ECI),  the CEO’s office has decided to play it safe by first removing the damning data altogether and then providing a link to the ECI site containing counted polling data, instead of uploading the revised polling data on its website ceoorissa.nic.in.

The CEO, Odisha had sought to explain away the missing data first attributing it to ‘technical error’, then ‘clerical error’ and finally ‘statistical error’.

The CEO has now provided only a link on its website relating to Vidhan Sabha trends and results, 2014 and Lok Sabha trends and results, 2014 uploaded on the ECI website eciresults.nic.in.

It is to be noted that Chief Electoral Officer Mona Sharma had said that the actual polling data would be uploaded within a few days in the website. But instead of uploading the actual polling data, the CEO has now given the links raising many eyebrows.

After odishasuntimes.com exposed the worst kept secret about glaring discrepancies between the number of votes cast and polled, the panicky office of the CEO had removed the pages on its website in order to cover up the matter.

The report said the difference in figures between the two sites was to the tune of a mind boggling 16, 000 + in some Assembly constituencies, enough to constitute the difference between winning and losing in tightly contested constituencies.