COMPARED to the 60 per cent turnout in the British general election last week, it was 66.6 per cent in India, where 642 million people out of the eligible electorate of 968 million cast their ballots.
In Britain, polling took place last Thursday (4), whereas in India, voting was held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1, because of the size of the country as well as security issues.
Had India encountered the problems that were faced by a constituency such as Hendon in north London, where postal voting forms were not delivered on time, the country’s Election Commission would probably have ordered a repoll.
Ameet Jogia, co-chair of Conservative Friends of India, who lost by 15 votes – the smallest in the country – understandably feels cheated. Jogia, who worked as an aide to Lord Dolar Popat before moving to Downing Street to be an adviser to prime minister Rishi Sunak, got 15,840 votes to Labour’s 15,855 and Reform’s 3,038.
Jogia is now considering taking legal action against Barnet council. He told the Daily Telegraph that he personally knew of around a dozen constituents who had told him they would have voted for him, but their postal ballot papers never arrived.
“There were so many others, too,” he said. “In my case, this would have made a difference. We were robbed. Barnet council has had a repeated issue with postal votes going missing or not arriving. We had it in the mayoral election (in May) when whole streets did not receive them.”
Jogia had even written to the council on May 9, demanding the issue be “rectified before the upcoming general election”.
There does seem to be a case for a repoll. Incidentally, it is worth noting that among the 10 cabinet ministers who lost their seats was the justice secretary, Alex Chalk, who represented Rishi at India’s Republic Day celebrations at London’s Guildhall earlier this year.
Sunder Katwala
