The one-hour window dedicated for COVID-19 patients to cast votes on the polling day has emerged as a major concern for polling officials.
While those testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 till 3 p.m. on the eve of polling are allowed to cast votes in special postal ballot papers, those found infected after that are allowed to drop in at polling booths clad in Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on the polling day.
Polling officials remain jittery about the prospect and seem to have many questions that remain unanswered. “All five polling officials in the booth are supposed to wear PPE kit when such a voter turns up and we are supposed to dispose it at the nearest health centre afterwards. This raises many practical questions besides the security of the polling materials we are supposed to safeguard,” said a college lecturer drafted in as a polling official.
Another polling official said that while officials had been asked to wear the PPE with the help of a mirror it remained to be seen whether one would be provided at the booth.
“Officials should at least have been spared of the hardship of having to turn up at booths the previous night in view of the pandemic. Steps being taken to avoid crowding at the centres for the distribution of polling materials also remain to be seen,” said another official.
A senior health official said that while multiple special polling officers with vehicles had been assigned to each local body to distribute special ballot papers at the doorstep of the infected till the eve of the polling, instructions about the voting protocol for of the infected and whether they would be accompanied by health officials were yet to be issued.
Officials said they hoped that the majority of the infected would choose to avoid the hardship of turning up in PPE kit to vote.
Another official who attended a recent training at a city college said that too little time, just 10 minutes of a three-hour session, was assigned to a health official to take polling officials through the COVID protocol associated with the election process. “A demo on wearing the PPE kit was done in a jiffy and there was no time to ask for clarifications,” he said.
However, the allocation of an addition polling official, an anganwadi worker, in every booth to sanitise voters and ensure physical distancing has been appreciated.
“We have finalised the list of polling officials and the final training session was held on Friday. We have enlisted 15,660 polling officials at the rate of five each in 3,132 polling booths in the district while 3,132 officials have been put on the reserve list,” said a senior election official in the district.
