Indian election panel rejects opposition Congress party's complaint on voting

MUMBAI - India's election panel has rejected a complaint by Congress, the largest opposition party, regarding vote counting in recent state elections that dashed its expectations, warning that the "frivolous" doubts expressed could provoke turbulence.

The Election Commission dismissed the party's concerns about the functioning of electronic voting machines as completely unfounded and criticised it for questioning the process.

"Such frivolous and unfounded doubts have the potential of creating turbulence," it said in a statement on Tuesday.

A spokesman for the Congress party did not immediately comment on the matter.

The Congress, which has ruled India for 54 of the 77 years since independence from Britain, is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's biggest opponent.

It had been widely projected to win this month's state elections in northern Haryana, bordering New Delhi, the capital, but results showed that Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party had the majority.

Immediately afterwards, the party said it would not accept the "totally unexpected, completely surprising and counter-intuitive" result and complained this month to the election panel about the counting of votes.

Indian law allows candidates to complain to the election commission about counting issues and seek redress. If unsatisfied by its response, they may appeal to the courts. REUTERS