Former CEC Quraishi slams reports of funding by U.S. agency for raising voter turnout in India

Former chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi denies U.S. agency funding for voter turnout in India during his tenure.

Former chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi on Sunday (February 16, 2025) rejected a report that U.S. agency funding was used for raising voter turnout in India when he headed the poll body.

His reaction came after the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by billionaire Elon Musk announced a series of expenditure cuts, including $21 million allocated for "voter turnout in India."

The DOGE in a post on X on Saturday announced cancelling many programmes costing hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars. The department said, "U.S. taxpayer dollars were going to be spent on the following items, all (of) which have been cancelled..."

The list included $486 million in grants to the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening including $21 million for "voter turnout in India".

"The report in a section of media about an MoU by the ECI in 2012, when I was CEC, for funding of certain million dollars by a U.S. agency for raising voter turnout in India does not have an iota of fact," Quraishi said in a statement.

He said there was in fact an MOU with the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) IFES in 2012, when he was the CEC, like the ones the EC had with many other agencies and Election Management Bodies to facilitate training for desirous countries at ECI's training and resource centre India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM).

"There was no financing or even promise of finance involved in MoU, forget X or Y amount," he said.