The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday will announce the schedule for General Election to Legislative Assemblies of Goa, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

Recently, the ECI had said that all political parties want the Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to be held as per schedule ,while ensuring Covid protocol.

Elections are due in Uttar Pradesh by mid-March when the term of the Yogi Adityanath government ends.

It had said the number of polling booths will be enhanced and the voting time will be increased by an hour. Polling officials will be vaccinated and those eligible will be given a booster dose too, it said.

Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra who was there on a three-day visit to Lucknow had reviewed preparations for the elections slated to be held in the next few months. He held a series of meetings with representatives of different political parties as well as State and district-level officials.

Protocol

The situation arising out of the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus was also reviewed, Chandra said adding that it has been noted that there was not much impact of the latest variant in the State where only four cases were reported and three of them have recovered.

He also said because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of polling booths in the State will be increased by 11,000 to maintain proper social distancing.

Earlier, a booth was made for 1,500 voters. But keeping in mind the Covid pandemic, the number of voters in each booth has been reduced to 1,250, he had informed.

Thermal scanners, masks will be provided at all polling booths and special care will be there on maintaining social distancing, besides proper sanitisation of booths, he had added.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW