Bihar election result 2020: Counting centres maintain safety measures, social distancing

A day before the announcement of the results in Bihar, the Election Commission of India (ECI) increased the number of counting centres to 55 in order to comply with COVID-19 social distancing guidelines. The number of counting centres in the state was 38 during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

'The simple reason is we want to maintain social distance'

"Earlier we used to have 38 counting centre for 38 districts but this time we have 55 counting centres and the simple reason is that we want to maintain social distance," said Bihar Chief Election Commissioner HR Srinivasa to news agency ANI in Patna. Srinivasa said that ECI has established a 3-tier security system for strong rooms (housing the EVMs) and the counting centres.

"Election Commission gave 19 companies of paramilitary forces to guard strongrooms. They are the innermost core of counting centres' security. There are 59 companies of paramilitary forces to maintain general law and order in the state. The inner core is being guarded by the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), then there is the Bihar Military Police (BMP) and then the district police," he added.

Prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) have been imposed in and around the counting centres to prevent the gathering of people.

Counting of votes in the Bihar polls will take place Tuesday. Almost all the exit polls have predicted a win for the RJD-led Grand Alliance, which has projected Tejashwi Yadav as its Chief Ministerial candidate.

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Bihar is the first state where the full-fledged election was held after the Coronavirus outbreak in India. The voting across 243-assembly constituencies in Bihar was held in three phases on October 28, November 3, and November 7 to decide the fate of 3,755 candidates. Over 7,29,27,396 electors were eligible to vote in Bihar polls and the voter turnout was at 57.05%, which was 0.39% higher compared to 56.66% in 2015 elections.

The Election Commission took precautionary coronavirus measures as it mandated face masks, hand sanitizers, thermal scanners, gloves, face shields, and PPE kits during the electoral process while ensuring social distancing norms. 

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(With agency inputs)