EC revises referendum results, cites clerical error
‘Yes’ and ‘No’ votes both decline
The Election Commission has issued a revised gazette correcting the results of the recent referendum, reducing both 'Yes' and 'No' vote counts from the figures published earlier.
In the corrected gazette issued yesterday (25 February), the commission said the number of 'Yes' votes now stands at 4,72,25,980, down from the previously announced 4,82,00,660. The number of 'No' votes has been revised to 2,19,60,231 from the earlier 2,20,71,726.
According to the updated figures, the total number of votes cast in the referendum was 7,66,21,407, compared to 7,76,95,023 reported in the first gazette. Of these, 74,35,196 ballots were declared invalid. Excluding invalid votes, the total number of valid votes stands at 6,91,86,211.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
When asked about the revision, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told reporters today (26 February) that the earlier published results contained "clerical errors".
"There was a clerical mistake in the previously published results, with some digits misplaced. It was later corrected, and that correction has been reflected," he said, adding that the number of 'Yes' votes remains higher and there has been no deviation in the overall outcome.
The earlier gazette published on 13 February stated that 4,82,00,660 voters cast 'Yes' votes and 2,20,71,726 voted 'No'. At that time, the total votes cast were reported at 7,76,95,023, with 74,22,637 invalid ballots and 7,02,72,386 valid votes.
An analysis of the revised results shows that 'Yes' votes decreased by 9,74,680, while 'No' votes fell by 1,11,495 compared to the initial announcement.
The referendum is intended to finalise the constitutional legitimacy and public approval of the July National Charter.
