Bihar Assembly Election Result 2020: Why Final Results Will Be Delayed This Time

Initial trends suggest that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to become Bihar’s largest party for the first time. But despite the elaborate arrangements made by the Electoral Commission to count the votes for the 243-seat Bihar Assembly elections, the final results are likely to be delayed. The voting panel has announced that the final count will be delayed as the vote counting will continue until late at night.

The reason behind this delay is a 45 percent increase in the number of polling stations during the three-phase assembly election in the state. According to HR Srinivas, Electoral Director (CEO) of Bihar, there was a significant increase in the number of polling stations as the Election Commission of India wanted to ensure that all social distancing rules were followed during the voting process to ensure the voter safety. The survey panel took extra precautions as Bihar was the first state to vote after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year.

Read the live updates of the Bihar CM election result here

This time the number of polling stations reportedly increased to more than 1 lakh. This led to the use of more electronic voting machines (EVMs) throughout the voting process that began on October 28. At the beginning of 2015, there were about 65,000 polling stations.

Additional polling stations were required because the Election Commission reduced the number of voters allowed at a particular polling station. This time, the number of voters allowed in a polling station was set at 1,000, which used to be 1,500. This was done to maintain physical detachment.

Similarly, the number of places for vote counting has increased to 55 from 38 places in the last Assembly elections. Chandra Bhushan Kumar, deputy election commissioner in charge of Bihar, said the counting procedure is expected to finish late tonight.