NEW DELHI: In the context of complaints by the opposition of irregularities in the counting of votes in the Bihar Assembly polls, Chief Elections Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said Thursday, although the Electoral Commission does not react to comments made by political parties, the final decision rests with the people.
He also said that the Bihar electoral director has already responded to everything. The EC held four press conferences on November 10 to respond to various aspects of the process, Arora said.
“We do not respond to comments made by political entities. It is their decision, what they said, why they said. The final decision is up to the people,” he told reporters here.
Responding to a query about the “slow pace of the count,” Arora said that taking into account the distancing rules in force due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of voters per polling place was limited to 1,000 instead of the usual 1,500 . This had resulted in an increase of 33,000 polling stations. This time, Bihar had more than a lakh of polling stations. More polling stations meant the use of 63% more electronic voting machines (EVM).
The number of counting tables per room was also halved to seven instead of 14 and the number of counting locations also increased from 38 to 55.
The vote counting, which began at 8 am on November 10, continued until the early hours of November 11.
Arora, along with fellow Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar, paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi in Rajghat.
He said that the survey panel had paid tribute to Gandhi after the successful completion of the 2019 Lok Sabha surveys.
“Today, the commission came to thank the Father of the Nation for the successful completion of the Bihar elections, which were held in the shadow of COVID-19,” the CEC said.
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