Omicron wave surges but elections to go on

The Election Commission of India last week announced dates for Assembly elections in five states despite the rapid rise in Omicron cases across the country.

The poll-bound states include Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest.  It has a population of about 235 million. That makes it as big as Germany, Britain, France and the Netherlands put together.

A citizen recently filed a petition in the High Court seeking postponement of elections in the state in view of the third wave of the pandemic. The court sought the Election Commission’s response to the suggestion.  

The Commission, in turn, sought the views of the state’s political parties. All of them opposed postponement.

The other states on the poll calendar are Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.

There was no demand for postponement from any of them.

All these states are under Bharatiya Janata Party governments except Punjab which has a Congress government.

The schedule announced on Saturday envisages completion of polling in seven phases from February 10. Counting of votes will take place on March 10.

The attempt to involve the Judiciary in the process of determining poll dates may have been good-intentioned but it was ill-conceived.

Several countries, including the US, went through elections while the pandemic was raging.  

India itself held Assembly elections in six states last year, braving the second Covid wave. Uttar Pradesh held elections to local self-government bodies, which was a more massive exercise.

There are reasons to believe that last year’s polls in India led to an aggravation of the COVID situation. But this was mainly due to slackness on the part of political parties in observing COVID protocols.

In the light of this experience, the Election Commission has proposed more stringent procedures this time to avoid crowding at all stages.

Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra, who held discussions with Health Ministry officials before announcing the poll schedule, said a candidate must not be accompanied by more than two persons when he or she goes to file nomination papers.  

Political parties were advised to hold virtual rallies as far as possible. A squad engaged in door-to-door canvassing must not have more than five members.

To avoid crowding at polling stations the Commission increased the number of booths and extended polling time by one hour.

As a first step in preventing huge gatherings the Commission banned all election rallies, roadshows and street-corner meetings till January 15 in the poll-bound states. It will review the COVID-19 situation on that day and take a further call on allowing rallies.

Sushil Chandra said the Commission would not hesitate to bar parties from further rallies if they did not follow COVIDprotocols.

All polling officials will be treated as frontline Covid warriors and given a booster dose of vaccine.

The Commission warned that strict action would be taken against polling officials if they violated COVID guidelines.

The Commission said that if people are allowed to attend rallies, political parties must provide masks and sanitisers.

It also said there should be no victory celebrations when the results are announced. Only two persons must accompany the candidate when he or she goes to collect the winning certificate. The Commission said all polling stations would be equipped with Covid-mitigation facilities including sanitisers and masks.

The five states have more than 180 million voters. Of them, more than 150 million have received the first dose of vaccines while over 90 million have got both doses.

The Election Commission has drawn up plans taking into account forecasts by experts that the third wave will peak next month. During the second phase daily infections had risen to more than 400,000. This time it is considered likely to go above half a million.

However, the severity of the Omicron variant is expected to be less than that of the Delta variant which caused the second wave.

The Election Commission has done well in drawing up new guidelines. It is now for the political parties, likewise, to do what is best in the given circumstances.