The Election Commission has rejected a request for advancing the commencement of poll timing from 7 a.m. to 5 a.m. in the coming three phases, during Ramzan.
The Commission took the decision on a petition by Delhi-based advocate Mohammad Nizamuddin Pasha, following a Supreme Court directive on May 2. Listing the reasons, the EC said that under the current poll timing of 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. (11 hours), “our polling team needs to spend at least 15-16 hours of active time in the poll process ensuring that no mistake occurs.” The same applied to the security forces who guarded the whole process. The EC said advancing the commencement of poll “will also advance the arrival of polling agents, many of who even now come late and are not able to reach by 6 a.m. and which hinder starting the mock poll process in absence of their arrival.”