CHIEF ELECTION Commissioner Sunil Arora on Sunday said all officials who will be engaged in assembly elections duty would be reckoned as frontline workers and would be vaccinated for Covid-19 on priority.
“On the recommendation of the Election Commission, the Union Health Ministry had issued orders that all officials on election duty would be treated as frontline workers and would be vaccinated on priority,’’ Arora told reporters after meeting representatives of political parties and senior officials in the state.
Assembly elections in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Puducherry and Assam will be held this year.
Arora said considering the Covid-19 situation, the number of voters in polling booths would be brought down to 1,000 and more polling booths would be arranged. “Apart from 25,000 booths, there would be an additional booths of 15,000 in Kerala taking into account the Covid-19 situation in the state.’’
He said the schedule of the elections would be fixed only after considering the opinions raised by political parties, availability of central forces, examinations and local festivals. “All political parties have pointed out about the festivals of Vishu, Easter and Ramadan in the month of April. We told them that the Commission would take all these factors into account before fixing the election schedule,” he said.
The CEC said nominations can be submitted online. For offline submission of nominations, only two persons would be allowed and for vehicle rally only five vehicles would be permitted.
