Cameras To Be Installed For Live Monitoring At All Polling Stations: EC
- By Thetripurapost Desk, Delhi
- Jun 17, 2025
- 667
To increase monitoring of the voting process, the Election Commission (EC) will now webcast all polling stations. The EC said on Monday that this decision will be implemented from the Bihar assembly elections.
The webcasting data will be for the internal use of the commission. Meaning it will not be made public. Till now webcasting was done for only 50% of the polling stations.
Webcasting will be done in areas with internet connectivity. In areas where there is no internet connectivity, alternative arrangements like videography, photography can be made.
Webcasting monitoring control rooms will be set up at the state, district and assembly seat levels. Nodal officers will be appointed at each level to oversee and monitor it.
On December 20, 2024, the central government changed the rules to prevent the public disclosure of certain electronic documents such as polling station CCTV, webcasting footage and video recordings of candidates.
On the recommendation of the EC, the Law Ministry had amended Rule 93(2)(A) of The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961. Rule 93 says, "All documents relating to the election shall be publicly available."
This was changed to "All election-related documents will be publicly available 'as per the rules'". A Congress petition against the change in the rule is pending in the Supreme Court.
Officials had said that using AI, CCTV footage of polling stations could be manipulated to spread fake narratives. That is why a ban was imposed on making electronic records public.
However, even after the change, these records will be available to the candidates. Others can go to court to get it.
In fact, in a case, the Punjab-Haryana High Court had directed to share documents related to the Haryana assembly elections with the petitioner. In this, CCTV footage was also considered under Rule 93(2).
However, the Election Commission had said that this rule does not include electronic records. The rule was changed to remove this ambiguity.
The EC had told the High Court that documents such as nomination forms, appointment of election agents, results and election account statements are mentioned in the Conduct of Elections Rules.
Electronic documents such as CCTV footage, webcasting footage and video recordings of candidates are not covered under the code of conduct.
A former EC official said that CCTV coverage and webcasting of polling stations is not done under the Conduct of Election Rules but is done for transparency.
At the same time, an official of the Commission had said that many such cases have come up where electronic records were sought citing the rules. The amendment ensures that only the documents mentioned in the rules are made public. Other documents which are not mentioned in the rules should not be allowed to be made public.
In January 2024, a CCTV video of the election officer tampering with the ballot paper surfaced in the Chandigarh mayor election. This election was fought jointly by AAP and Congress.
After the voting, Election Officer Anil Masih declared the result. In this, BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar got 16 votes and AAP-Congress candidate Kuldeep Teeta got 12 votes.
The election officer declared 8 votes of the alliance candidate invalid. On this, AAP-Congress alleged that Masih had made the ballot invalid by marking it himself.
The matter reached the Supreme Court. During the hearing on February 5, the then CJI DY Chandrachud saw the video in which the election officer was seen putting a cross on the ballot paper. Chandrachud made a strong comment on this.
The court accepted 8 invalid votes and decided to make the coalition candidate the mayor.