NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that “indiscriminate disclosure” of polling station-wise voter turnout data and posting it on website will cause chaos in the election machinery which is already in motion for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

The poll panel said that public posting of Form 17C – which gives the number of votes polled in a polling station – is not provided in the statutory framework and could lead to mischief and vitiation of the entire electoral space as it increases the possibility of the images being morphed.

The EC also dismissed as false and misleading the allegation that the first two phases of the Lok Sabha elections saw an increase of “5-6 per cent” in the voter turnout data released on the day of polling and in the subsequent press releases for each of the two phases.

Press Trust of India