Curbs at rallies, booths likely in first Covid-19 polls
While elections have taken place in other countries since the Covid-19 pandemic, including in Sri Lanka recently, elections in India have only been confined to polls to the Rajya Sabha and legislative council seats, which involve a limited set of voters.
To hold the first set of elections in India in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic — particularly the Bihar assembly polls — the Election Commission of India (ECI) is finalising guidelines with restrictions on public presence at campaign rallies, in door-to-door political outreach, in polling booths, and inside counting halls, to ensure strict social distancing, four officials familiar with the decision-making process told HT.
The contours of ECI’s new plan for elections in the “new normal” are being adopted even as political parties have offered varied suggestions to the constitutional body, from deferring polls altogether to holding them in one phase, from reverting to ballot papers to allowing physical (and not just virtual) rallies, and from increasing the limits on poll expenditure by candidates to exempting those expenses incurred while enhancing Covid-19 precautions.
State election officials, too, have passed on their inputs to ECI.
While elections have taken place in other countries since the pandemic, including in Sri Lanka recently, elections in India have only been confined to polls to the Rajya Sabha and legislative council seats, which involve a limited set of voters. Experts believe that the election paradigm adopted for Bihar will have significant implications for political contests, and have a medium-term impact since other state elections are due in the middle of 2020.
ECI, which reviewed suggestions received from political parties on Friday for conducting elections to the 243-member Bihar assembly (its term ends in November) and subsequently held a meeting on Tuesday to discuss a wide-ranging organisational framework, is likely to issue the guidelines over the next three days. Elections to the Samastipur parliamentary constituency and 56 assembly constituencies (across eight states) elsewhere are also scheduled to be held from September, officials familiar with the matter said.
“The guidelines will broadly centre around three primary subjects — polling stations, counting halls and public meetings,” said an ECI official who did not wish to be named. “For example, in the counting hall we used to have 14 tables, now we have slashed the number to seven.”
Physical rallies
A key area of concern for political parties is rallies, which have traditionally served as a key political tool for mobilising voters and communicating messages by leaders. With the pandemic and the push towards digital campaigning, parties have expressed concern that the direct interface with voters, especially those who lack digital access, will get affected if physical rallies are not allowed.
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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is part of the ruling dispensation in Bihar, has asked the poll panel to allow physical meetings and rallies in rural and semi-urban areas since voters may not have access to mobile devices and the internet, people familiar with the matter said. In its submission to ECI, the party has said that all party workers, campaigners and leaders must have the Aarogya Setu app downloaded on their phones at all times, and adequate social distancing has to be maintained during roadshows and processions. In case, physical rallies are permitted, the party has suggested having enclosures with limited seating, separate exit and entry points, and use of sanitisers and thermal scanners at all points of entry and exit.
Other parties such as the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and a BJP ally, the Lok Janashakti Party (LJP), too have said that till physical rallies are allowed, elections must not take place.
Arguing that digital campaigning and virtual rallies allow the ruling party an upper hand because these cost more money, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have also demanded public meetings.
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According to the first ECI official quoted above, public meetings may be allowed but strictly monitored. “If a ground has been designated for a public meeting, then the administration will have to ensure that only the number of people who can be admitted keeping social distancing in mind are permitted inside. Circles to mark the appropriate distance should be drawn. The number of riders that can accompany the leader will also be limited.”
On the same issue, a second official said, “We are not saying that parties cannot have physical rallies. They will just have to follow all social distancing norms or the rally will be shut down.”
Door-to-door campaign
The Congress has also sought permission for house-to-house campaigns, people aware of the details said. In its submission to ECI, the party said, “We are in favour of an election based on face-to-face campaign where the candidate and party workers can meet the voters.”
A third EC official said that suggestions such as limiting door-to-door campaigning to a maximum of five people have also been made. “All those doing door-to-door campaigning must give their phone numbers so that if any one tests Covid-19 positive, effective contact tracing can be done,” he said, adding that special arrangements would also have to be made for those living in containment zones.
The commission is also considering allowing online submission of nomination forms by candidates to make the process easier, said the first ECI official.
Poll expenses
Another area of concern for parties is poll expenses. The BJP has suggested that the limit on expenditure should be increased for the candidates, or alternatively all expenditure which is borne on purchasing equipment to safeguard against Covid-19 be exempted from being charged to the candidates account. There have been other suggestions on how there should be new limits on social media expenditure of parties given the increased reliance on digital medium due to the pandemic.
But, as of now, the poll body is not considering imposing additional financial limits on the amount spent by political parties on online campaigning, officials said. “Social media campaigning was always allowed, even before the pandemic. Expenditure limits that exist will apply,” the first official quoted above said. Political parties do not have a limit on the expenditure, but a candidate is allowed to spend a maximum of ₹28 lakh, including all election costs.
The commission has already issued directions that the number of electors per polling booth will be limited to a maximum 1,000 compared with 1,600 earlier. A number of auxillary polling stations will be created to accommodate the voters. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora on June 27 told HT that 36,000 polling stations will be created in Bihar.
Other suggestions
The Congress, the RJD and All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen have also demanded that the commission should revert to using the ballot paper so that voters are not susceptible to the infection while pressing the buttons on the electronic voting machines (EVMs). This demand, officials indicated, is unlikely to be met.
The BJP has also sought changes to the model code of conduct to bring into its ambit new methods of campaigning in an election. “The commission should issue a direction that no person in jail custody either due to conviction for commission of any offence or being an under trial prisoners be permitted to participate in the poll campaign in virtual mode,” the party said in a submission to ECI. This is widely seen as a move to ensure that RJD leader Lalu Prasad, currently serving a sentence after being convicted, cannot campaign virtually.
There is also an emerging view that bypolls in some states should be postponed even further. HT, on August 14, had reported that the chief secretaries of Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat, and the chief electoral officer (CEO) of Kerala, had written to the commission, citing rising Covid-19 cases and heavy rains, to consider deferring the by-polls.
“In case of a state like Kerala, where assembly elections are due in April next year, it has been suggested that it does not make sense to hold bypolls,” said a fourth ECI official.
The EC on June 17 had decided not to notify the law ministry’s amendment to the Representation of People Act, 1951, that would have allowed those over the age of 65 to use postal ballots. Five key opposition parties, however, had then written to CEC Arora to reconsider the move.
Former CEC SY Quraishi said the framework of the ECI seems very ‘sensible’. “These are all good suggestions considering the Covid-19 pandemic,” Quraishi told Hindustan Times. “The EC has been assessing the situation on the ground and has been consistently monitoring how elections have been conducted in other countries as well.”
Quraishi added that while deferring by polls is easy, postponement of the Bihar elections would lead to a constitutional crisis.
“One or two by polls deferred doesn’t make much of a difference to the functioning of the assembly. However, if assembly elections are deferred, President’s rule will have to be imposed. That can only be done under two circumstances which constitute an emergency — external aggression and internal rebellion.”
Quraishi also said that the EC should consider capping expenditure by political parties on campaign.
