Voting In Bihar: Photos Show No Masks, Social Distancing At Polling Booths

The voting for the Bihar Assembly elections began on Wednesday with 71 constituencies going to polls in the first phase. The election will be held in three phases — 28 October, 3 November and 7 November — and the counting will be done on 10 November. 

Bihar is the first state in India to hold assembly elections since the Covid-19  outbreak. Ahead of the polls, the Election Commission issued detailed guidelines for the safe conduct of elections during the pandemic. 

However, photos and videos from some polling stations showed how the commission’s guidelines on social distancing are being flouted. 

The guidelines, issued in August, said thermal scanning of voters will be done at the entry point of polling stations and if the temperature of a voter is higher than the set norms of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare at first reading, then it will be checked twice. If the temperature remains high, the voter will be provided with a token/certificate and asked to come for voting in the last hour of polling.

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The Commission said sanitiser will be made available at the entry and exit point of every polling station and voters will also be provided with gloves for signing on the voter register and pressing the EVM button.

The guidelines also said that face masks will be kept in reserves for those voters who are not carrying masks. “At any given time, only one voter shall be allowed to stand in front of each polling official maintaining social distance,” it said. 

The guidelines said that markers will be put to demonstrate social distancing for queue and help desk will be set up for distribution of token to the voters on first come first basis so that they do not wait in the queue. “The services of BLOs, volunteers etc may be engaged to monitor and regulate social distancing norms strictly.”

Circles will be earmarked for 15-20 persons with 6 feet distance for voters standing in queues depending on the availability of space, it added. 

Photos from polling stations in Bihar, however, showed voters standing in queues without wearing masks or following social distancing norms. 

Dipankar Ghose of The Indian Express tweeted that social distancing rules were being followed inside a polling booth in Munger, but voters can be seen queuing up outside the polling station.