EC Guidelines for Assembly Polls In 5 States : Model Code Of Conduct Comes Into Immediate Effect, All COVID Safety Norms In Place

Picture : Twitter / ANI

The Election Commission at a media briefing at Vigyan Bhawan New Delhi announced the assembly poll dates of the five states – Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa, Manipur.

Addressing the media CEC Sushil Chandra explained , As COVID cases soared in view of Omicron variant, ECI held meetings with Union Health Secretary & Home Secretary, experts, & health secretaries of States. After taking these views & ground situation, ECI decided to announce polls with safety norms in place. All election officials and employees will be considered as frontline workers and all eligible officers will be vaccinated with ‘precautionary dose’.

A total of 18.34 crore electors including service voters will take part in this election out of which 8.55 crore are women electors.

24.9 lakh first-time electors are registered in the 5 States including Uttar Pradesh.

CEC Chandra,  urged the political parties, by saying  It is mandatory for political parties to upload on their website detailed information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases selected as poll candidates. They will also have to give a reason to select the candidate.

With the announcements Now Says The CEC as quoted by ANI , Model Code of Conduct (MCC) comes into effect immediately from announcement of the schedules. Election Commission has made elaborate arrangements for ensuring the effective implementation of the MCC guidelines. Any violation of these guidelines will be strictly dealt with. Our cVIGIL application should be used by voters to report any incident of violation of the Model Code of Conduct, distribution of money & freebies. Within 100 minutes of complaint, ECI officials will reach the place of offence.

On the process of Elections Chandra states, EVMs and VVPATs will be utilized in all the polling stations. Election Commission has already made arrangments to ensure an adequate number of EVMs and VVPATs for the smooth conduct of elections.