Bihar Assembly polls to be held in three phases, October 29, November 3 & 7,2020. Counting of votes takes place on November 10. Bihar Election 2020 is the first major election being held amid the coronavirus pandemic.Election Commission of India announce the election schedule on Friday in New Delhi. Bihar has to elect a new 243-members. Polling hours have been increased by one hours from 7 am to 6 pm. Covid infected and virus suspected will vote separately. Those in quarantine can case their vote at the end of voting time.
Addressing the press conference in New Delhi on Friday, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora called it a "historic election" and the world's biggest in the time of the coronavirus. There will be an extra voting hour, separate voting for Covid patients, suspects and those in quarantine, and no physical contact during the campaign.In phase I of the Bihar Election, 71 Assembly constituencies in 16 districts, including most of the LWE affected districts will go to polls. In phase II, 94 Assembly constituencies in 17 districts and in phase II, remaining 78 Assembly constituencies in 15 districts will go to polls, "The world has changed significantly since the last elections, which were held for Delhi assembly. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a new normal in every aspect of our life," he said.
As the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) comes into force, hate speech, fake news, and malicious propaganda will be dealt with harshly. "If required, special observers will also be deployed for expenditure monitoring and law and order contingency etc," Sunil Arora said. Polling stations will have sanitisers, masks, soaps etc in view of the pandemic. Political parties should upload online criminal antecedents of candidates, why they were selected and why those with no such antecedents were not selected, said CEC Sunil Arora. According to ECI, Nomination and affidavit can be filled up online and print out submitted to RO. Also, security deposit can be submitted online. The number of persons accompanying candidate for submission of nomination restricted to two. Door-to-door campaign restricted to 5 persons.
Over 7 lakh hand sanitiser units, about 46 lakh masks, 6 lakh PPE kits, 6.7 lakh units of faces-shields, 23 lakh (pairs of) hand gloves arranged. For voters specifically, 7.2 crore single-use hand gloves arranged, said CEC.
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