The unsolved puzzle of rejected ballots and abnormal voter growth in Sikkim

The Supreme Court’s recount of votes in Buana Lakhu village, Panipat, Haryana, overturned the Panchayat election outcome, proving that errors or manipulation in counting can change the results. 

More recently, Rahul Gandhi’s press conference on the electoral rolls of a Karnataka constituency raised fresh doubts about the credibility of voter lists. Independent fact-checks by several news media outlets confirmed many of his claims, including dubious entries such as eighty people registered at a single address.

On social media, too, videos have surfaced showing individuals voting multiple times or officials tampering with the ballot papers. Together, these incidents highlight a broader concern: how secure is our election process? 

Prompted by these debates, I analysed the official Form 20 data from the office of the Chief Electoral Officer, Sikkim. Two striking features emerged from the 2024 election: the unusually high rejection rate of postal ballots and the sharp, uneven rise in the number of voters compared with 2019. 

Postal Ballots

A total of 18,173 postal ballots were cast in Sikkim. Of these, 2509 votes (nearly 14 per cent) were rejected. Rejection rates varied significantly across districts. Gangtok recorded the highest at an unprecedented 20 per cent (20 out of every 100 votes), followed by Mangan (16 per cent), Pakyong (13 per cent), and Namchi (12 per cent). Soreng and Gyalshing districts recorded the lowest at 9 per cent.

Figure 1: Postal Ballot rejection rate (in percentage)

Within the Gangtok district, some constituencies rejected almost one in four postal votes (Table 1). Tumin Lingi and Upper Tadong recorded a 23 per cent rejection rate, while Martam-Rumtek had 22 per cent and Gangtok 20 per cent. Khamdong Singtam and Shyari also reported 20 per cent, while Upper Burtuk had 18 per cent. Even the lowest in the district, Arithang and Sangha, still witnessed 14 per cent of postal ballots rejected. 

Table 1: Postal Vote Rejection across Constituencies in Gangtok (in percentage).

The Form 20 records also showed discrepancies in five assembly constituencies, where the sum of accepted votes, rejected votes, and NOTA exceeded the officially reported total (Table 2). In Barfung, the difference was as high as 75 votes; smaller mismatches appeared in Yangthang, Soreng-Chakung, Shalghari-Zoom and Sangha. 

Table 2: Constituency-wise gaps in Ballot Count.

Voter Growth

Between 2019 and 2024, the average growth in the voter list of Sikkim was 7.58 per cent, with only minor differences across districts (Figure 2). Gyalshing recorded the highest increase at 9.79 per cent, followed by Gangtok at 7.90 per cent, Pakyong at 7.12 per cent, Soreng at 6.65 per cent, and Mangan at 6.28 per cent. Yet within Gangtok district, the contrasts are striking (Table 3).

The Gangtok and Shyari constituencies saw the lowest growth at 1.99 per cent and 3.35 per cent, while Sangha and Upper Tadong constituencies recorded surges of 23.79 per cent and 18.33 per cent. Put differently, Sangha added nearly 12 times as many voters as Gangtok and Upper Tadong, more than 8 times. 

 Figure 2: Growth in voters across the districts (in percentage).

Table 3: Percentage increase in voters across constituencies in the Gangtok District.

The puzzling pattern in Gangtok District

Gangtok district stands out for two reasons: it has the highest rejection rate of postal ballots, and it contains both the fastest-growing and the slowest-growing constituencies in terms of votes. Upper Tadong, bordering the Gangtok constituency, saw an eightfold increase in votes over its neighbour.

This abnormal increase in voters was first noticed when the Election Office published the draft roll around six months before the election. During an all-party meeting organised by the District Collector’s office, the significant and unusual rise in the number of voters in Upper Tadong was discussed, but the causes remained unexplained.

A call for clarity

The analysis is preliminary, but the patterns are too stark to ignore. When rejection rates touch one in five postal ballots or constituencies within the same district show tenfold differences in voter growth, questions naturally arise. Since the figures are drawn directly from official election data, it is incumbent upon the Sikkim election office to clarify these discrepancies and restore public confidence in the process. 

Also Read: