Election Commission may visit Bihar soon to assess poll preparedness

NEW DELHI: Chief election commissioner Sunil Arora on Monday said the Election Commission would take a call in the next 2-3 days on visiting Bihar, due for the first assembly election to be held in the country since Covid-19 outbreak. The proposed visit, he told representatives of 45 election management bodies from across the world during a webinar organised by EC upon completion of a year of chairmanship of Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB), follows detailed guidelines already laid down by the poll panel to ensure social distancing during campaigning and polling in Bihar and to facilitate participation of senior citizens and Covid-19 positive patients under quarantine.
Arora, in his inaugural address to the webinar on ‘Issues, Challenges and Protocols for Conducting Elections during Covid-19: Sharing Country Experiences’, spoke of the "tough predicament" faced by all election management bodies on whether and how to hold scheduled elections in a state of public health emergency.
Over 120 delegates from 45 countries and 4 international organizations (viz. International IDEA, International Foundation of Electoral Systems (IFES), Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) and European Centre for Elections) participated in the webinar.
Arora said the contextual framework of every country was different, the extent and trajectory of the disease varied and so did the capacity of each country to respond to the novel corona virus. He mentioned countries such as South Korea, Australia, Malawi, Taiwan, Mongolia and many others who have gone ahead with scheduled elections with enormous arrangements to ensure the health and safety of people. Explaining the scale of the upcoming assembly poll in Bihar, he mentioned that the total number of electors is 72.9 million.
Highlighting how Covid-19 exigencies and social distancing measures had necessitated a revisit of ECI's extant instructions, he said the maximum number of electors at a polling station was reduced from 1500 to 1000, and consequently, the number of polling stations jumped by 40 per cent, from 65,000 to 100,000. These changes have huge logistics and manpower implications, he said adding that the Commission would take a decision within the next two to three days, on visiting Bihar. The state is due for polls that must be completed before November 29. EC is expected to announce the poll schedule soon.