The conduct of Assembly elections in pandemic times promises to be a tough ride for the EC

With the recent announcement of dates for the Assembly polls in five States — Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa and Punjab — the Election Commission of India may have flagged the start of the race at the hustings, but more likely than not it’s going to be nothing short of an obstacle course. A total of 690 Assembly constituencies (403 seats in UP, 117 in Punjab, 70 in Uttarakhand, 60 in Manipur and 40 in Goa) will go to polls this time. For its part, the poll panel has done basic preparations to ensure COVID-safe elections, hassle-free voter experience and maximum voter participation. The commission members visited the poll-bound States to review preparations, met senior health officials there and have been working diligently to ensure pandemic incident-free elections. Since the COVID situation is very dynamic, all Central and State officials on election duty have been directed to be doubly vaccinated. All EC officials and employees will be treated like frontline workers and also vaccinated with the booster (or precautionary) dose. Another happy development is that physical campaigns have been banned till January 15 as of now, and a decision on the rest of the canvassing duration will be taken after reviewing the situation.

It sounds meticulously planned but there is many a slip between the cup and the lip; the challenges lie in implementation of these plans. The cases of COVID-19, especially of its latest and highly transmissible Omicron variant, have again started spreading like wildfire through the nation. The pandemic cases in Punjab and UP have gone up 10-fold in about 10 days and Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur have registered a five-fold rise during the same period. Owing to the spiralling rise and the damage elections at this juncture can cause, the EC is under pressure to prevent State polls from becoming COVID super-spreaders. Therefore, it’s a good idea to increase the number of polling booths in each constituency, thus reducing the number of voters further from 1,200 per booth. Also, the proof of vaccination might become mandatory to cast votes, in addition to making the wearing of masks and maintaining social distancing mandatory, though there isn’t a final decision on it yet. There’s no denying that the right to vote is supreme in a democracy but the right to life is paramount; of self, and of others, too.