8am to 6pm voting, live webcast: Key announcements made by ECI on UP polls

The Election Commission of India press conference was held after the poll panel held a series of meetings with the political parties. The ECI delegation had reached Lucknow on Tuesday to discuss modalities to hold assembly polls amid the threat posed by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra on Thursday held a press conference in Lucknow where he announced how the panel is preparing for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections. The schedule for the election is expected to be announced in the first week of January.

Sushil Chandra (chief election commissioner of India) Rajiv Kumar (election commissioner of India) Anup Chandra Pandey (election commissioner of India) and other addressing press conference regarding preparation of upcoming UP assembly elections, in Lucknow on Thursday. (Deepak Gupta/HT Photo)

The press conference was held after the poll panel held a series of meetings with the political parties during its three-day visit to the state. A delegation of Election Commission of India (ECI) had reached Lucknow on Tuesday to discuss modalities to hold assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh amid the threat posed by the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Chandra said that all the political parties told the commission that the elections should be held on time. He also said “it’s a matter of worry” why voter turnout is low in Uttar Pradesh.

“61% voter turnout was recorded in 2017 UP assembly elections. In 2019 Lok Sabha elections, voter turnout in UP was 59%. It a matter of worry why voting percentage is less in the state where there is high political awareness among people,” the CEC said.

He also talked about the initiatives being taken by the ECI for a smooth assembly election in UP. Here are some of them:

• Voting during Assembly elections will be held from 8am to 6pm on the date of polling. Earlier, the timing was from 8am to 5pm.

• VVPATs to be installed at all voting booths. Live webcasting facilities will be available at around 1 lakh voting booths to ensure transparency in election process.

• The staff deployed at voting booths across the State will be fully vaccinated.

• People above 80 years of age, persons with disabilities, and Covid affected people who are unable to come to the polling booth, the Election Commission will reach their doorsteps for vote.

• Female officers to be deployed at 800 polling stations.

• Uttar Pradesh has 15 crore voters, and 53 lakh of them are new voters.