After getting a nod from the Supreme Court to hold the counting of votes of the four-phase three-tier panchayat polls with strict Covid guidelines, the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission (SEC) has geared up for the counting which will be held on Sunday.
Elections for 58,189 village panchayats of Uttar Pradesh took place in four phases, between April 15 and 29, with polling percentage ranging between 72 and 75 per cent. The counting of votes will be taken up at around 800 centres from 8 am on May 2 (Sunday). A total of over 12 crore voters were eligible in this elections, termed the biggest rural polls of the world.
Counting of votes for 2.40 lakh posts will be done when the counting personnel are called for an 8-hour shift. Counting of ballot papers will be done separately, first of Gram Panchayat members, followed by gram pradhans, Block Development Council (BDC) members and lastly of district panchyat members.
The panchayat polls are termed semifinals before the 2022 UP Assembly polls. Though political parties have fielded their candidates, there were no symbol of the parties used in these polls.
The polls will be a test of the Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government’s popularity and an opportunity for opposition parties to gauge the public mood, particularly as they come against the backdrop of persisting farmers’ protests in the country that have also gripped parts of UP.
Though the SC has given a go-ahead to the SEC for the counting of votes, the announcement of boycott of counting duty by the teachers and state government employees associations may hamper the process and delay the announcement of results. The Supreme Court allowed the process of counting of votes of panchayat polls on Sunday while taking into note the assurance given by the State Election Commission that necessary measures would be taken at the counting centres as per the COVID-19 guidelines. The Supreme Court said no victory procession would be allowed.
The Election Commission assured the Supreme Court during the hearing that Covid protocols would be followed during the counting process, oximeter tests will be done at the entrance of counting centres, no crowds will be allowed inside or outside, centres would be sanitised after every shift, social distancing would be maintained and thermal checking would be done.
State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar said here on Saturday that action would be initiated under the Calamity Management Act, 2005, against anyone found violating Covid safety norms during counting of votes.
Teachers and state government employees associations have claimed that over several hundred of the teachers and state employees and their family members have died due to Covid-19 when they were engaged in election duties. The employees associations demanded postponement of the counting for a fortnight.