Bihar polls: Election Commission team reaches Patna to review poll preparedness

Days before the Bihar assembly polls, Chief Election Commission Sunil Arora and the two Election Commissioners reached Patna on Tuesday on a three-day visit to review poll preparedness and hold meetings with state officials.  Bihar Assembly election will be held in 3 phases- October 28, November 3 and November 7. 

The election commission team included EC Secretary-General Umesh Sinha and Deputy Election Commissioners Sudeep Jain, Chandra Bhushan Kumar along with CEC and two ECs Sushil Chandra and Rajiv Kumar. According to sources, the ECI team will hold a meeting with the chief electoral officer and nodal officers.

The EC team will also hold discussions with representatives of various political parties on September 30. Special arrangements to be made to ensure social distancing and adherence to health and safety protocols during campaigning as well as polling.

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Bihar Election dates announced

The Election Commission of India in a press conference last week announced the schedule for the Bihar assembly elections. Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora said that the polls for the 243-member legislative assembly will be held in three phases. The first phase will be held on October 28, the Second on November 3, and the third on November 7, while the counting of votes and results declaration will be held on November 10. Sunil Arora also informed that the Model Code of Conduct will be in effect from Friday with the announcement of election dates.

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COVID protocol amid COVID

After the announcement of dates for assembly elections in Bihar, the Election Commission of India has laid down guidelines for free, fair and safe elections amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the guidelines were the regular mandatory protocols such as use of face masks at all times during election activity, thermal scanning of all persons to be carried out and sanitisers be made available at all locations. 

The commission has revised the norms and reduced the number of persons accompanying the candidate from 5 to 2, the number of vehicles for the purpose of nominations restricted from 3 to 2. The Election commission has also created a facility to file the nomination form and the related affidavit online and the same shall be taken in print and submitted to RO. For the first time, the security amount for contesting the election can be deposited online by the candidate.

Keeping the containment guidelines in mind, the commission has limited the number of persons including the candidate for a door-to-door campaign to 5.

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