The dates of the elections are yet to be released and the announcement will be made by the commission at an appropriate time

The Election Commission of India has decided to hold the General Assembly Elections of Bihar and the bye-elections in various states around the same time to ensure relative ease of movement of CAPF/ other law and order forces, and related logistics issues. The General elections of Bihar are due to take place before November 29 this year.

The decision was made on September 4 in a meeting with Chief Secretaries and Chief Electoral Officers of the states. In the meeting factors like extraordinary heavy rains and the ongoing COVID-19 situation were discussed and taken into account while deferring the bye-elections.

The General Assembly elections are due to take place in Bihar before November 29 this year. The top electoral body released a statement saying that the elections will take place at the same time to ensure ease of movement of several security staff.

“Considering that General Assembly Elections of Bihar are also due and required to be completed before 29th November 2020, the Commission has decided to conduct all the 65 bye-elections and the General Assembly Elections of Bihar around the same time. One of the major factors in clubbing them together is the relative ease of movement of CAPF/ other law and order forces, and related logistics issues,” the ECI said in the statement.

However, the dates of the elections are yet to be released and the announcement will be made by the commission at appropriate time, the statement said further.

The bye-elections will be held on 65 vacant seats in assemblies and parliamentary constituencies including 64 seats in State Legislative Assemblies and one seat in Parliamentary Constituency.

The Election Commission of India had last month issued guidelines related to the conduction of the polls in various states. The guidelines were issued in view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

As per the guidelines, every person is required to wear a face mask during every election related activity. The commission had made it mandatory for all premises used for election purposes to install a thermal scanner and scan all people entering the polling booth.

The guidelines also mandated the availability of sanitizer, soap and water at the polling stations besides strictly adhering to the norms of social distancing.

The election commission had also reduced the maximum number of voters to 1,000 voters from the earlier norm of 1,500 voters to a polling station.

The commission advised the authorities to identify large halls and open places to be converted into polling booths for effective maintenance of social distancing. The commission mandated adequate number of vehicles shall be mobilized for movement of polling personnel, security personnel to ensure compliance of COVID-19 guidelines.