Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government is averse to advancing the assembly election a little earlier than the usual schedule in May. It is set to urge the Election Commission of India not to hold the elections immediately in the state in view of the spike in COVID-19 cases. The state government will demand the EC to hold the polls sometime in May or June.
The government will raise the matter before Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar during the meeting scheduled to be held with them on Saturday to review the preparations for the poll.
CEC Arora and the two commissioners arrived in the state late Friday evening to hold discussions regarding the poll preparations. The EC team will hold discussions with the chief secretary, home secretary, state police chief and other senior officials at 3:30pm on Sunday. It will hold discussions with the Chief Electoral Officer and nodal officers on Saturday.
The state government will urge the EC to delay the polls citing that Kerala at present has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the country. The government will point out that if the elections are held at a time when infection is widespread the situation could get worse. Besides the elections will adversely affect the ongoing distribution of COVID-19 vaccine.
The government will reason that as district collectors double up as electoral officers in their jurisdictions, they will have to take up the responsibilities of overseeing the conduct of the election and vaccine distribution simultaneously.
The state government expects the poll announcement to be made before February 21 and the election to be held in April. The new government has to assume office before June 1.
Real motive?
It is suspected the government is buying time to implement many people welfare schemes besides inaugurating new projects by demanding a late election.
Opposition stand
The opposition parties are in favour of an early election as both the United Democratic Front and the National Democratic Alliance are reportedly upbeat about their prospects.
The UDF and BJP, which is heads the NDA, will request the EC not to delay the polls and initiate measures to check bogus voting likely possible when the postal votes are misused.
Fear of bogus votes
For the forthcoming polls the EC may make arrangements for postal votes for differently abled, those above 80 years of age and persons with COVID-19 infected.
As per a preliminary assessment about 7,000 votes in each constituency could fall in the postal vote category. The opposition has serious apprehensions that the postal votes would pave the way for widespread bogus voting that could influence the election results decisively.
The opposition alleges that though special teams would be constituted at the district level to distribute postal votes casting of bogus votes is possible by influencing and threatening the officials.
However, the EC sources say the teams will comprise two polling officers, a police security personnel and a videographer. Arrangements will be made for the representatives of the candidates to reach the venue where postal ballots are kept.
The UDF and BJP will demand that the postal votes should be collected in the presence of the representatives of the three major political fronts, the postal votes should be kept in sealed boxes and the details of the COVID-19 infected persons should be provided to the political parties.
Vaccine for election officials too
The central government has meanwhile instructed that officials, deployed on election duties, must be included in the list of workers on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. The state health department has begun collecting details and making arrangements for this. The director of the health department has been appointed as the nodal officer for this.
The list of employees on election duty should be uploaded in the CoWIN portal of the central government.
Currently, one section in the revenue department is functioning as the election wing. They have a list of employees, on election duty, and it is likely to be used.
In the first phase of the vaccination drive, health workers were inoculated in the state. In the second phase, which began on Friday, cops, COVID-19 volunteers and members of the Haritha Karma Sena are being vaccinated. The election officials will be included in the next phase.
As the number of polling booths will increase this time, there will be more personnel on election duty. It is estimated that around 2 lakh government personnel, including police, will be needed for the smooth conduct of the election.
