The Aam Aadmi Party yesterday questioned the Election Commission over the delay in releasing the final voting percentage.
Chief Election Officer Ranbir Singh blamed the delay on collation of data.
Singh told reporters yesterday evening that the final voter turnout was 62.59%, which he termed “satisfactory”.
AAP leaders, including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal questioned the delay.
Singh also allayed apprehensions of the AAP over alleged transportation of electronic voting machines in buses.
He said they were the ‘reserve’ EVMs and a meeting was held at 2pm yesterday in the presence of all representatives of all political parties, where all expressed satisfaction.
Explaining about the delay in releasing  the data even 24 hours after voting ended, an election officer said: “The data was being compiled at polling station levels and it takes time.”
“Moreover this huge exercise was in continuation of the sealing of strong rooms which went on till 3am,” the official added.
The voting ended at 6pm on Saturday. However, due to long queues at some booths, more time was given so that those in line could exercise their rights.
Responding to a tweet from a journalist that quoted officials as saying “final polling percentage will be made public by today evening”, Kejriwal said it was “shocking”.
“Absolutely shocking what the EC is doing. Why are they not releasing poll turnout figures, several hours after polling?” he said.
Meanwhile, AAP minister and Shakur Basti candidate Satyendar Jain said after compilation of Form 17C for 143 booths in the constituency, a total of 98,012 out of 144,777 votes were polled.
“That works out to be 67.7% votes. Whereas the EC website is showing 49.19% polling only. Why after 22 hours of official polling data is not released by EC,” Jain tweeted.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also questioned the delay, alleging that Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were providing voting statistics.
“The Election Commission has not been able to tell what percentage of voting took place even after 24 hours since polling ended... What is happening? Will you collect the final numbers from the BJP office?”
AAP leader Sanjay Singh said it was the first time in history that the EC took so long to announce the turnout.
“Even in Lok Sabha elections, the turnout is announced the same day. I remember the time when polling used to happen on ballots. The next day, newspapers used to have the figures about the turnout,” Singh said.
“It means some game is going on. There are only 70 constituencies. Even states with more constituencies announce the turnout on the same day.”
All political parties including the BJP are worried over the low voter turnout, which further went down from the last assembly polls.
Worried over the low voter turnout, the BJP Delhi unit held a meeting which continued till late Saturday night. BJP president J P Nadda, Home Minister Amit Shah, Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari, senior leaders Prakash Javadekar and Nityanad Rai and several others were present at the meeting.
The BJP leaders are worried not only over the low turnout but also the exit polls which claimed that the AAP would repeat the performance of 2015.
Several party leaders feel that the decline in the turnout was due to the apathy of the middle class which is directly impacting the party. In the last assembly elections, the BJP got 33% vote share. The party leaders believe that it was difficult to motivate people and bring them out to the polling booth. The booth workers were instructed to ensure a high voter turnout and MPs were asked to keep an eye on their work. Despite all the efforts, the turnout was 5% compared to the previous assembly elections.
The party strategists are trying to figure out if the people have voted for regularisation of the unauthorised colonies or for free water and free power scheme of Kejriwal.
Party leaders also believe that the scheme of ‘Jahan jhuggi, wahin makaan’ (Homes in place of slums) did not reach the public properly. Rumours were spread about the implementation of this scheme. The BJP is looking at it as a direct loss.
A senior Delhi BJP leader said the AAP cadres spread rumours about the scheme in the public as he told the people that they will lose the ownership of their original houses.
The BJP has not spoken out openly on the low voter turnout but has certainly dismissed the exit polls results.