By Online Desk
The Election Commission has announced dates for the upcoming Assembly elections on Saturday. It will be a seven-phase election which will kick-off with the first phase in UP on February 10.
Addressing the media at Vigyan Bhawan, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said elections will be held for 690 aseembly seats in all – 403 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh, 117 in Punjab, 70 in Uttarakhand, 60 in Manipur and 40 in Goa.
After taking stock of the Covid-19 situation in the country, Chandra said, “We aim to conduct Covid-safe elections in five states with maximum voter participation with extensive preparations. More than 18 crore voters, including over 8.5 crore women, will be eligible to vote in five state assembly polls.”
Assuring that the number of polling booths has been increased, he said, “All polling stations will be equipped with Covid-mitigation facilities including sanitisers and masks.”
EVMs and VVPATs will be utilised in all the polling stations. Election Commission has already made arrangements to ensure an adequate number of EVMs and VVPATs are kept for the smooth conduct of elections.
“At least one polling booth in each Assembly constituency will be exclusively managed by women personnel to encourage women voters,” said Chandra.
Making it mandatory to disclose the criminal background of the candidates, he said, “The party website will have to give full disclosure of the pending criminal cases of candidates.”
He also said that candidates contesting polls will be given an option for online nomination.
Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for ensuring the effective implementation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) which will come into effect immediately from the announcement of the schedules. “Any violation of these guidelines will be strictly dealt with. Zero tolerance towards money-power and misuse of government machinery,” he said.
“Our cVIGIL application should be used by voters to report any incident of violation of the MCC, distribution of money and freebies. Within 100 minutes of complaint, ECI officials will reach the place of the offence,” Chandra added.
After the series of meetings held with the Union Health Secretary and Home Secretary, experts and health secretaries of states and taking their views along with the ground situation, the commission has decided that postal ballot votes can be given for senior citizens above 80 years of age, persons with disabilities and Covid-19 patients.
It is to be noted that a total of 18.34 crore electors including service voters will take part in this election out of which 8.55 crore are women electors. Around 24.9 lakh first-time electors are registered in the five states including Uttar Pradesh.
Taking note of the prevailing Covid-19 cases, election officials and employees will be considered as frontline workers and all eligible officers will be vaccinated with ‘precautionary dose’, added Sushil Chandra.
He also added that no physical rally of political parties or probably candidates or any other group related to elections will be allowed till January 15. The ECI will subsequently review the situation and issue further instructions accordingly, he stressed.
