Polls in the time of Pandemic: Bihar to witness country's first direct elections during Covid-19 era

Bihar is set to witness the first direct elections of the country in the Covid-19 era.

The Election Commission (EC) is set to announce the schedule of the assembly polls in Bihar on Friday. The commission held indirect polls to fill vacancies in the Rajya Sabha and the legislative councils in the states over the past few months, but the general elections to the Bihar Legislative Assembly will be the first direct one to take place after the Covid-19 pandemic swept the country.

Read | Holding Covid-19-safe elections can’t be sole Election Commission priority

The EC on August 21 issued broad guidelines for holding polls at the time of pandemic. It, however, left it to the Chief Electoral Officers in the poll-bound states to frame specific plans for holding elections amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic, based on the broad guidelines issued by it.

The National Capital Territory of Delhi went to polls on February 8 – a few days after the country’s first case of Covid-19 infection was detected in Kerala. The outbreak turned severe across the country a few weeks later.

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and the two other Election Commissioners – Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar – will announce the schedule of the elections to the Legislative Assembly of Bihar during a press-conference at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi at 12:30 pm.

Also Read | Bihar's poor technology penetration poses new challenges for election amid Covid-19: Report

The EC will have to complete the assembly elections in Bihar by November 29. Over seven crore people are expected to cast votes to elect the 243 members of the state legislative assembly.

The poll-panel will also announce the schedule of the by-elections to fill 64 vacancies in the legislative assemblies in the 14 states and one in the Lok Sabha.

The 64 assembly constituencies, where bypolls will be held, includes Sira in Karnataka. The vacancy was created as the Janata Dal (Secular) MLA B Sathyanarayana passed away early last month.

Besides, the by-elections need to be held in 22 assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh too. The vacancies were created in the Madhya Pradesh State Assembly after the MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia resigned to leave the Congress to join the Bharatiya Janata Party, leading to a regime change in Bhopal.

Read | Bihar polls: Election Commission may provide every voter with glove for right hand

The EC of late brought down the maximum number of electors to be facilitated at a polling station from 1500 to 1000 to ensure implementation of social distancing norms in view of the Covid-19 pandemic. The number of polling stations in Bihar thus jumped by 40 per cent, from 65,000 to 100,000.

The EC’s guideline for conducting polls during Covid-19 require all voters to come with masks on faces. If anyone forgets to do so, they will be provided masks while waiting in the queues before entering polling booths – maintaining six feet distance from each other. They will also get gloves to put on before pressing the buttons on the Electronic Voting Machines. Apart from infrared thermometers for checking the body temperatures of the voters, the polling stations will also have sanitizers, soap and water and all poll officials too will be issued masks, face-shields and gloves to put on. The polling booths will be sanitized, preferably a day before the date of voting. If a voter running high body temperature turns up at a polling station, she or he will be sent back with a token and asked to come again at the last hour to cast votes.