Nagaland Bye Election: Polling under Covid-19 cloak

Our Correspondent
Kohima, Oct. 31 (EMN): Elaborate arrangements have been made to facilitate the smooth and safe conduct of bye-elections in Nagaland, amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Abhijit Sinha, the chief electoral officer (CEO), informed Eastern Mirror on Saturday that 99 polling stations — 22 for 14-Southern Angami-I A/C and 77 for 60-Pungro-Kiphire A/C — have been set up for the polling.

Voters will undergo thermal screening at the polling stations, he said. “We have already provided thermal scanners to the polling parties,” he added.

Protection kits like face masks, gloves, hand sanitisers etc., will also be made available in all the polling stations.

Sinha informed that those detected with symptoms of Covid-19 or any other infectious disease will be allowed to exercise their franchise only in the last hour before polling comes to a close. He asserted that standard operating procedures (SOP) and physical distancing norms will be strictly followed.

Wearing of face masks will be mandatory and voters who arrive without mask will be provided with the protective cloth ‘which have been kept in abundance’, he said.

Hand gloves will also be given to each elector before signing on the voter’s registration and pressing the button on EVM. On coming out of the polling booths, the hand gloves must be thrown into the containers, he shared.

Every polling official will also be carrying their protective kits.

This year instead of four, five officials each will be detailed to all the 99 polling stations.

Each booth-level officer will be assigned outside their polling stations to regulate the preventive measures and see that the voters follow SOP, wear their protective mask and maintain social distancing while waiting in queue.

Sinha said that the ground outside the polling stations will be marked to maintain social distancing, prior to the polling day. He informed that this year’s voting will be from 6 am to 4 pm, as opposed to the 7am to 4pm slot; one additional hour will be allotted to the officials to ensure that Covid-19 protocols are followed.

The entire polling proceedings will be monitored through live webcams, depending on the availability of internet connection.

It was learnt that in Kohima, all polling stations will have webcasting. However, in Kiphire, about 30% will be covered under webcasting while the polling process will be conducted with offline videography for those polling booths without internet accessibility.

Micro observers will also be deployed during the poll in each constituency, it was informed.

Sinha also informed that enough vehicles will be requisitioned for poll duty in both the two constituencies. The requisition of vehicles for Kohima has been completed while the same is going on for Kiphire, he said.

The CEO also said that 12 polling parties will be going to Kiphire district on November 1, whereas for Kohima, polling officials will be assigned to their respective polling station on November 2.

Security personnel from CRPF, CISF, IRBs and state armed police forces will be deployed for the election. “Enough forces will be sent,” the officer said, adding that “depending on the criticality, the deployment of forces have been already worked out”.

“We are trying our best to conduct the elections peacefully, fairly and freely,” said N Moa Aier, additional CEO. He maintained they have been issuing awareness reminders in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the electoral data, there are about 13,641 voters under the 14-Southern Angami-I A/C while the total number of the electorates at 60-Pungro-Kiphire A/C stands at 29,601.

The bye-elections in the state have been necessitated to fill the two seats left vacant after the demise of the two legislators: then Speaker and NDPP representative Vikho-o Yhoshü (14-Southern Angami-I) and NPF representative T Torechu (60-Pungro-Kiphire)

Even though the upcoming elections are expected to be peaceful, there have been reports of intimidation and breaking of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) recently.

In a complaint lodged on October 29, the NDPP claimed that the supporters of Independent and NPF candidates were resorting to threat and intimidation.

Meanwhile, the district administration of Kiphire had issued show cause notice to three village councils in the district namely Penkin Village Council, Tsurevong Village Council and Lopfukong Village Council on October 27 for violating the Model Code of Conduct.

Polling to the two constituencies will be held on November 3 and votes will be counted on November 10.