Election Commission defers 8 bypolls due to Covid-19, floods

The Election Commission has decided against holding bypolls in seven assembly constituencies in five states and a parliamentary constituency in Bihar in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, heavy rainfall and flood, although the deadline from the respective vacancies to be filled up ranged from July 30 to September 7.

The EC will on Friday take a call on holding other bye-elections across the country – in 48 other assembly constituencies and one more parliamentary constituency.

The EC issued a certificate on Thursday, expressing its “considered view” that the bye-elections due to be held up to September 7 might be deferred “in public interest”. It noted that the bye-elections should be held when the situation would become conducive and necessary logistics and protocols would be put in place.

The commission’s move to defer eight bye-elections in six states came even as several opposition parties like the Congress and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) cited the Covid-19 pandemic to question the rationale of holding the assembly elections in Bihar in October.

The Section 151 (A) of the Representation of the People’s Act requires the EC to hold the bypolls in seven assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Assam and Valmiki Nagar parliamentary constituency in Bihar between July 30 to September 7. A provision in that particular section of the law, however, empowers the poll-panel to certify in consultation with the Central Government that it is difficult to hold the bye-elections within the stipulated period.

The EC’s Senior Principal Secretary Sumit Mukherjee issued the certificate, stating that the Covid-19 pandemic situation had “not improved in several parts of the country” and conducting elections now would “pose a grave risk to the health and safety of the citizens”. The poll-panel noted that several states also had heavy rainfall resulting in floods and local administration in the respective districts were engaged in responding to the situation. The twin constraints of the Covid-19 and the floods would impact significantly electoral activity, including logistics, training of personnel and preparation of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail devices (VVPATs), it stated.

The EC, however, clarified that its “certificate” issued on Thursday was limited to the eight bye-elections in seven states. It will take a call on other bypolls during its meeting on Friday.

The 48 assembly constituencies where bye-elections need to be held in the coming months include the 24 in Madhya Pradesh. The vacancies were created in the Madhya Pradesh State Assembly after the MLAs loyal to Jyotiraditya Scindia resigned to switch from the Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party, leading to a regime change in Bhopal.