India's election panel has dismissed a complaint by Congress, the largest opposition party, concerning vote counting in recent state elections that did not meet its expectations, cautioning that the 'frivolous' doubts raised could incite unrest.
The Election Commission refuted the party's concerns about the operation of electronic voting machines as entirely baseless and admonished it for challenging the process.
'Such frivolous and unfounded doubts have the potential of creating turbulence,' it stated in a release on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the Congress party did not immediately respond to the matter.
The Congress, which has governed India for 54 of the 77 years since independence from Britain, is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's chief rival. It was widely anticipated to win this month's state elections in northern Haryana, adjacent to New Delhi, the capital, but results indicated that Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party held the majority.
Subsequently, the party declared it would not accept the 'totally unexpected, completely surprising and counter-intuitive' outcome and lodged a complaint this month with the election panel about the vote counting.
Indian law permits candidates to file complaints with the election commission about counting issues and seek remedy. If dissatisfied with its response, they may appeal to the courts.
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