Poll amid pandemic: Consequences for democracy would be catastrophic if ECI falters, says Congress

The Congress party on Friday said that the Election Commission’s guidelines for holding polls during the coronavirus pandemic fall “far short of ensuring conduct of elections in a free, non-partisan and fair fashion without giving undue advantage to the ruling party”.

Saying that the EC has “overlooked” almost all the suggestions given by the opposition parties, and prepared guidelines, Congress general secretary in-charge organisation, K C Venugopal, in a statement, called upon the EC to revisit the recommendations

“The simple question to ponder over is, if the very foundation of democracy -- our elections cannot be conducted fairly, how will adult franchise and majority mandate, the lifeblood of our democracy, be effectively upheld?” said Venugopal in his statement.

Highlighting some of the party’s key concerns, Venugoapal said that “in case the EC falters in this bounden duty, the consequences for democracy would be catastrophic”.

Citing extremely high chances of infection for a very large part of the population from shared use of one machine, Venugopal suggested use of paper ballots.

Saying that the guidelines don’t make any deep distinctions between the specific challenges of rural areas and urban areas, Venugopal added, “The EC has left this to the discretion of state officials instead. The ECI must provide for detailed guidelines and not leave the safety and wellbeing of the voters to the differing interpretations and largess of local authorities”.

Referring to the EC’s guideline which mentions that the relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Indian Penal Code will be invoked against anyone who violates the said guidelines, the Congress leader pointed out, “The poll panel has surprisingly missed the potential for abuse by the ruling party which controls the policing machinery”.

According to the guidelines issued by the EC on Friday for holding polls during the coronavirus pandemic, voters will be provided gloves while using EVMs and COVID-19 patients in quarantine will be allowed to vote at the last hour of the polling day.

A separate set of guidelines would be issued for voters who are residing in areas notified as “containment zone” the Election Commission said.