According to the 2024 general election schedule issued by the Election Commission of India, voting for a total of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam will be held in three phases. Voting took place for five seats in the first phase on 19 April 2024, and for five seats in the second phase on 26 April 2024. Voting for the remaining four seats in Assam will be held in the third phase on 07 May 2024. In this context, a post claiming that 171 votes were cast at a polling booth in Assam’s Dima Hasao district during the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, where only 90 voters were registered, is being widely shared across social media platforms (here, here, here, and here). The post further claimed that the Election Commission had suspended five officials in connection with the incident. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: In the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, 171 votes were cast at a polling booth in Assam’s Dima Hasao district, where there were only 90 voters.
Fact: The incident took place during the 2021 Assembly polls in Assam, held in April 2021, and is not related to the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The Chief Electoral Officer of Assam clarified regarding this viral claim through a X (formerly Twitter) post, clarifying that the incident occurred during the 2021 assembly elections and is not recent. Hence, the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
To verify the accuracy of a viral claim, we conducted a relevant keyword search which led us to several news reports published in April 2021. According to a ‘Times of India’ news report dated 05 April 2021, 171 votes were cast in a booth in Assam’s Dima Hasao district, even though only 90 people were eligible to exercise their franchise. The booth was situated in the Haflong constituency, which went to the polls in the second phase of the Assam Assembly elections on 01 April 2021. Haflong witnessed a 74% polling turnout. After the incident came to light, the District Election Officer suspended five poll officials from the booth, set up at 107(A) Khotlir LP School, and proposed a repoll. An official stated, “The head of that village refused to accept the voters’ list and brought a list of his own. Then, the people of the village voted according to that list.” Additional news reports about this incident can be seen here and here.
According to the ‘India Today’ report dated 11 April 2021, the Election Commission of India has ordered re-polling at four polling stations in three assembly constituencies of Assam. The re-polling took place on 20 April 2021. One of these stations is 107A Khotlir LP School in the Haflong Assembly constituency. Despite having only 90 registered voters, the number of votes cast exceeded this figure. The District Election Officer of Dima Hasao stated that a group of voters from Mualdam Lower Primary School polling station mistakenly cast their votes at the Khotlir LP School polling station. This error was attributed to negligence on the part of polling officials, resulting in the suspension of five officials.
Furthermore, we came across a clarification post by the Chief Electoral Officer of Assam on X (formerly Twitter) regarding the viral post. The post reads: “A false narrative has been circulated in the social media regarding 171 additional votes being polled in one of the polling station in Dima Hasao, district of Assam”.
Additionally, the thread post reads: “The incident mentioned in the said post refers to one that had taken place in the assembly election of 2021. Re-poll was conducted in that particular polling station and disciplinary proceedings against the concerned officers was taken”.
Meanwhile, we noticed that Dima Hasao, which is part of the Autonomous District Lok Sabha constituency, went to polls in the first phase of the Lok Sabha elections on 26 April 2024. However, we did not come across any reports of election malpractice reported from the district.
To sum it up, the voting irregularity incident that took place during Assam’s 2021 assembly elections has been falsely linked to the ongoing 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
