Bihar Election: 34000 New Polling Stations; Postal Ballot Facilities for Covid patients

By Gyanendra Kumar Keshri

People who are Covid-19 positive or suspect in quarantine, be it in home or institutional isolation, will be extended the facility of casting their vote in the upcoming assembly election in Bihar through postal ballot. Electors who are above 80 years of age, PwD Voters, and those engaged in essential services will also be given the option of exercising their franchise through postal ballot.

However, the Election Commission of India has decided not to extend the facility of postal ballot to all the voters who are above 65 years of age due to logistics issue. There were talks of providing the option of postal ballot to all those who are 65 years of age or more. Elderly people who are above 60 years of age are the most vulnerable to Coronavirus disease. Demands had been rising from different quarters and even the Election Commission of India had indicated that it was considering the option of providing postal ballot facilities to all those who are above 65 years of age.

However, the Commission has now clarified that the focus is on creating additional polling stations in order to ensure that the social distancing is maintained during the election. But it has decided not to extend the postal ballot facilities to people above 65 years of age.

“Considering all these issues, challenges and constraints and in view of the decision to limit the number of electors at each polling station to 1000, Commission has decided not to issue the notification to extend the facility of postal ballot to the electors above 65 years of age in the coming General Elections in Bihar and by- elections due in the near future,” an official statement said.

“However, facility of optional postal ballot to electors who are above 80 years of age, PwD Voters, the electors engaged in essential services and voters who are COVID-19 positive/suspect in quarantine (home/institutional) will be extended in these elections,” it added.

The Election Commission said that it “has been constantly monitoring the electoral preparedness for the coming by-elections and General elections of Assembly in Bihar, in view of this unprecedented environment.”

Commission has already limited the number of electors to one thousand for each polling station for ease of voting, especially for elderly and vulnerable sections of electors, in COVID-19 situations.

In view of this, the State is creating additional 34,000 (approximately) polling stations (45 per cent more), which will increase the total number of polling stations to around 1,06,000. This would entail formidable logistical challenges of mobilising 1.8 lakh more polling personnel and other additional resources including requirement of much larger number of vehicles in the State of Bihar. Similar challenges would be there for the coming by-elections also.