Parties want UP polls on time with strict Covid-19 protocol: CEC Sudhir Chandra

Chandra was in Lucknow on a three-day visit to conduct meetings with representatives of political parties and review preparations. He said while all parties have asked for the polls to be held on time, representatives of some parties expressed concern about rallies being held during the day without adhering to Covid-19 protocol and some also demanded for the number of rallies to be controlled.

The Allahabad High Court had, in a recent observation, had appealed to the EC to ban the political rallies in the state immediately in light of a looming third wave with cases rising across the nation and, if possible, to postpone the polls scheduled to be held in February, by a couple of months.

While ruling out any delay in polls, Chandra announced a slew of measures to facilitate polling with Covid-19 protocol. The CEC has estimated about 15 crore voters in the state currently, but the exact figure will be ascertained once the final list of voters is out.

11,000 more polling booths have been added across the state to bring down the number of persons flocking to one booth from 1,500 to 1,250. This way, there will be 1.64 lakh polling booths across the state. Also, for the first time in the state, voters aged above 80, disabled and Covid-affected voters will be given optional facility of getting a postal ballot at home, while also striving to maintain transparency and secrecy of their votes in the process, said Chandra, adding that polling time across the state will also be increased by one hour.

Chandra said the EC has been assured by the state government that the entire eligible population will be vaccinated with at least one dose in the next 15-20 days. Currently, 86% of the population has received its first dose and 49% is fully vaccinated.

He also expressed concern over the low voter turnout saying for a state like UP where political awareness is high, the polling percentage was 61% in 2017 assembly elections, which fell down to 59% in 2019 general elections. He said owing to this, booths with low turnout were identified and activities were held to make people aware of their voting rights.