EC cites privacy, legal concerns in response to Rahul Gandhi’s poll footage request

Election Commission officials on Saturday said that such a move would compromise voter privacy and security

Citing voter privacy concerns, the Election Commission (EC) has pushed back against demands to disclose CCTV or webcasting footage from polling booths. This comes amid Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s demand for voter rolls, polling records and footage from the EC, alleging discrepancies in the Maharashtra Assembly polls.

Election Commission officials on Saturday said that such a move would compromise voter privacy and security. They said while such demand suits their narrative in making it sound quite genuine and in the interest of voters and safeguarding the democratic process, it is, in fact, aimed at achieving exactly the "opposite objective", PTI reported.

According to the EC officials, making polling booth CCTV footage public would contravene both the provisions of the Representation of the People Act and the directions of the Supreme Court of India.

Sharing the footage, which would enable easy identification of the electors by any group or an individual, would leave both the elector who has voted as well the elector who has not voted vulnerable to pressure, discrimination and intimidation by anti-social elements, they asserted.

Earlier today, Rahul Gandhi accused the EC of "deleting evidence" when it was required to "provide answers" after the poll body instructed its officers to destroy CCTV, webcasting and video footage of the elections after 45 days.

"Voter list? Will not give machine-readable format. CCTV footage? Hidden by changing the law. Election photos and videos? Now they will be deleted in 45 days, not 1 year. The one who was supposed to provide answers - is the one deleting the evidence," Gandhi alleged in a post on X.

"It is clear that the match is fixed. And a fixed election is poison for democracy," the Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha posted in Hindi.

The Congress leader's reaction came after the poll body instructed its state poll officers to destroy CCTV, webcasting and video footage of the election process after 45 days if the verdict is not challenged in courts within that period, saying it feared the use of its electronic data to create "malicious narratives".