Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 30: Amidst concern for a surge in Coronavirus infections in the coming weeks, the Election Commission of India on Thursday hinted that the elections to the Uttar Pradesh and four other state Assemblies would be held in time and it was not considering a postponement in the schedule as of now.
Speaking to media persons after his meetings with various political parties, officials and others in Lucknow at the end of his three-day visit to Uttar Pradesh on Thursday, the Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said all political parties favoured election in time and were against any postponement. The parties, however, had advocated for restricting poll rallies and manage other Covid protocols.
Chandra said the final poll schedules for Uttar Pradesh and four other states were expected to be announced after January 5. “All political parties in Uttar Pradesh were in favour of conducting the 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election as per schedule following Covid-19 protocol,” Sushil Chandra said. “However, guidelines on how big election rallies would be managed or whether digital communication would have to be increased, would be issued after the election schedule was announced,” he said. “All parties told us elections should be held on time following COVID-19 protocol,” said Mr. Chandra, adding that some parties suggested restricting the number and size of rallies.
Concern for holding the elections amidst the rising Covid cases was first expressed by the Allahabad High Court which had appealed to the ECI as well as the as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately ban rallies and public meetings of political parties and consider postponing the Assembly election, stressing that it was more important to save lives.
Chandra said the ECI would take cognisance of the HC’s appeal but said directive guidelines would be issued once election was announced. AS far as UP was concerned, he said he had been informed by the officials that Omicron variant cases were still very few in the state and added that the Covid-19 situation was “dynamic.”
“I have been told that 86 per cent of the people in the state have got the first dose and 49 per cent the second shot of the Covid vaccine…We have been assured that in 15 to 20 days all eligible people will get their first dose,” the chief election commissioner said. “We have asked for increase in vaccination coverage,” he said.
The CEC also said that the rapid spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus was also reviewed. “It has been noted that there was not much impact of the latest variant in the state where only four cases were reported and three of them have recovered,” Chandra said.
The ECI officials discussed the management of election rallies with top health and administrative officials. “This point (cutting down rallies) will be definitely considered how the big rallies are to be managed or whether digital communication may have to be increased,” Chandra said.
He said the voting duration during the 2022 election has been extended by one hour and now would be conducted across the State from 8 a.m. to 6.p.m. to give more time to follow the social distancing norms at the polling booths, said the CEC.
Chandra said the staff to be deployed for the election works would be treated as frontline workers and they would be ensured full vaccination before poll duties. The size of polling booths would be reduced from one per 1,500 persons to one per 1,250. This means there would be over 11,000 new voting booths taking the total to over 1.74 lakh, said the CEC. Thermal scanners and masks would be provided at all polling booths and special care would be taken on maintaining social distancing besides proper sanitisation of booths, he said.
While a final voter list was yet to be published, as of Thursday, there were over 15 crore voters in U.P. including 53 lakh new voters, while the number of voters in the 18-19 age group had increased from 0.51% to 1.32%, he said. Chandra expressed concern over the fall in voting percentage in U.P. from the 61% in 2017 Assembly election to 59% in the 2019 Lok Sabha election and said an awareness campaign would be held to improve the numbers.
Elections are due in Uttar Pradesh by mid-March when the term of the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government comes to an end.
