The Commission has issued guidelines for the safe conduct of the electoral exercise amid the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. These guidelines include reducing the maximum number of voters for a polling place from 1,600 to 1,000, staggering voting hours, and expanding postal voting facilities for those 80 and older. In addition, the sanitation of electronic voting machines, the use of masks and other protective equipment by electoral personnel, and the availability of thermal scanners, hand sanitizers, soap and water in polling stations must also be guaranteed.
Candidates in the fray in the first phase include 952 men and 114 women. Up to 33 of the constituencies that went to the polls in the first phase have been declared as sensitive or hypersensitive constituencies, the survey panel said. He said 31,371 polling stations have been established in this phase and that as many electronic voting machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Record (VVPAT) machines will be used. The additional director general of the police (headquarters), Jitendra Kumar, told PTI-Bhasha that security forces with adequate force have been deployed in all polling stations and the buildings that house them. Local police have also been used to supplement paramilitary forces where necessary, he said, adding that home guard services will also be brought to polling stations for jobs such as queue maintenance. He said that as a precaution, all security personnel deployed at the polls have received a coronavirus kit that has a mask, gloves, face shield and disinfectants.
He said that special security arrangements have been made for the areas affected by Naxal. Most of the areas of the state affected by Naxal will go to the polls in the first phase, he said. The administration will also hold an aerial vigil and a helicopter will be used for that purpose, he said. In announcing the election schedule for the 243-member assembly on September 25, Chief Elections Commissioner Sunil Arora had said that the polls will open as usual at 7 a.m. but that voting time will be extended by one hour until 6 pm, except in the Extremism of the Left. affected areas, so that COVID-19 patients can vote late in the day.
“The Bihar assembly elections will be one of the most important elections in the world during the current COVID-19 situation,” Arora had said.
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