Kamal Ghorui
New Delhi: There were over 68 lakh malicious hits, both from within India and overseas, on the Election Commission’s online platforms, including the results portal, on counting day for the just-concluded assembly polls. However, EC officials on Wednesday said all such hits were successfully countered with robust cybersecurity protocols.EC further informed that the ECINET platform — which subsumed over 40 different EC applications and portals dealing with separate poll-related functions — recorded an average 3 crore hits per minute on counting day (May 4) and a total 98.3 crore hits on the poll days (April 9, 23 and 29).Since its official launch of ECINET in January 2026, the integrated app has witnessed a significant surge in usage and recorded 10 crore downloads till date. The beta version of ECINET was used in Bihar elections in November 2025.Commission officials on Wednesday said ECINET played a central role in streamlining election processes including real-time monitoring, enabling faster reporting, and enhancing transparency during the recent polls to five states/UTs and bypolls.On counting day, over 3.2 lakh QR codes were generated to ensure that only authorised personnel could access counting venues, thereby preventing any unauthorised entry to the counting centres.The new QR code–based photo identity card system was used for the first time on counting day across all five states/UTs through ECINET, in a significant step towards enhancing security at the counting centres. This system will now be a standard for all future elections to the Lok Sabha and state/UT assemblies.
