Act against cops for allowing poll celebrations, says Election Commission

NEW DELHI: As trends and results trickled in, throwing up potential winners, some party workers could not hold back from gathering outside counting centres or party offices to exchange congratulatory greetings and indulge in public celebrations. However, this invited immediate disapproval from the EC in view of its recent ban on victory rallies, with the poll panel writing to chief secretaries of the concerned states/UT to act against the local station house officers for allowing the gatherings and to take penal action against the violators.
Stating that it had taken a serious view of the public celebrations in contravention of its directions issued on April 28 and May 1, EC ordered that the responsible station house officers (SHOs) and other officers be placed under immediate suspension and criminal/disciplinary actions initiated against them. The chief secretaries and DGPs were further directed to take penal action including filing FIR against violators under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and other relevant laws.
In a separate letter to the heads of recognised national and state political parties, the EC expressed its displeasure at the failure of certain parties to abide by the extant instructions/guidelines on Covid safety.
“It is utmost necessary that you direct/guide your party representatives/followers with strictness to stop them to celebrate and show restraint in these challenging times and ask them to behave strictly in accordance with the ECI’s instructions on Covid issues by NDMA/SDMA,” EC said.
Meanwhile, after real-time updates dried up on the ECI results website midway through the counting, senior officials explained that it were the ECI servers that had slowed down due to the heavy load and that there was no let-up in counting. They added that the RO had been told to declare the results and feed the updates later.