Thiruvananthapuram: Although the Department of Health has given the green light for the conduct of local government elections in compliance with the COVID-19 protocol, there are concerns that all the voters arriving at a booth may not get to vote within the hours specified by the election commission in a single day if social distancing has to be maintained.
Even if the state election commission allows polling time to be increased by an hour, that will not be enough, say politicians. Voters will have to wait until late at night to cast their votes by maintaining social distancing, they say.
There are 800 to 1,100 voters per booth on an average. Only vote is required for municipality and corporation elections. However, in panchayats, each person will have to cast three votes for village, block and district panchayats. Even if one assumes it will only take 10 minutes for one person to complete the polling, it will take hours for all the eligible voters to stand in a queue by maintaining social distancing and then cast their ballots.
The normal polling hours are from 7 am to 5 pm. But the State Election Commission has written to the government to amend the Panchayati Raj and Municipal Acts to stretch this to 6 pm on the lines of Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
But, many believe, polling will have to be stretched late into the night to allow all voters to cast their ballots.
Rules state that all those who arrive at the booths before the end of the polling time should be given a chance to vote. To ensure this in the local body elections, it would be necessary to increase the number of booths or divide the booths into separate blocks. Also, more officials will be needed to maintain law and order and ensure proper polling.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission had written to the government a month ago to amend the laws to allow postal or proxy voting (one person voting on behalf of another) for COVID patients and those in quarantine. The government will have to introduce a bill in the Assembly or issue an Ordinance for this to come into force.
The Opposition has objected to the Election Commission issuing a letter containing the recommendations without convening a meeting of political party leaders. There are indications that the Election Commission will convene the meeting of the leaders next month.
