Voting in Delhi on Feb 5, results on Feb 8

 New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced February 5 as the date of voting for the 70-member Delhi Legislative Assembly and the results will be declared on February 8.

The date of the Issue of the Gazette Notification is January 10, the last date for making nominations is January 17, the date for scrutiny of nominations is January 18, and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is January 20.

The date before the elections should be completed is February 10.

As per the CEC, Delhi has 70 constituencies, including 58 general and 12 SCs, across 11 districts. There are 83.49 lakh male voters, 71.74 lakh female voters, and 25.89 lakh young voters, culminating in a total of 1.55 crore voters. He mentioned that the total number of polling stations is 13,033 in the national capital, out of which PwD and women-managed are 70 each.

Admitting that some States are unable to pay salaries due to the heavy cost of freebies promised during campaigning, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday said the Election Commission of India’s hands are tied on the issue of “freebies” which cannot be disallowed as per a court order. “We cannot mortgage the future of the coming generation,” he said criticising the malpractice of political parties making financially unfeasible promises during elections.

He suggested that the parties should inform voters about the financial cost of each promise they make so that voters are aware of the debt on the government.

Rajiv Kumar said that India is poised to become a nation with one billion registered voters, the largest voter base in the world.

"2024 has been a significant year globally, with nearly two-thirds of the democratic world going to polls."

He highlighted India's electoral milestones in 2024, saying, "We conducted elections in eight states and Union Territories, as well as the general elections, setting multiple records. These include maximum voter turnout, violence-free elections, record seizures, and enhanced participation by the public, especially women."

There has been an instance of polling CCTV footage being misused, Rajiv Kumar saidstressing the need to protect the privacy of voters and justifying the decision to deny public access to polling footage.

“The curbs on public access to footage are aimed at protecting the privacy of voters and check any form of profiling,” he said, adding that those seeking footage are apparently doing so for training Machine Learning models and using AI to float fake theories.

Justifying the curbs on access to footage, CEC Kumar said, in perhaps the first official confirmation, that polling footage has been misused recently.