Night curfew, Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code that restricts more than five people gathering in public, limitations on the number of persons attending a function, religious rites to be conducted with no congregants, several other measures that curtail the free movement of people impose, if all this does not indicate that we are in the midst of a battle, then what does? Yet life goes on. Five towns and two wards of two village panchayats go to the polls today, April 23, right in the middle of the worst pandemic that Goa has ever faced. Questions have been raised by citizens on why the polls have not been postponed? If the Goa Board exams of Classes X and XII can be deferred, can’t the elections? Citizens have asked.
A day after 21 persons lost their lives to COVID-19 and 1410 persons contracted the virus, Margao, Mormugao, Mapusa, Quepem and Sanguem will vote to elect new councils, while a ward each Sarvan in Bicholim taluka and Velim in Salcete taluka will also vote for new panch members. A month after Goa voted new councils in six towns and in the State Capital municipal corporation of Panjim, the deferred elections to the remaining towns take place. When the new dates for these polls were announced, the number of COVID-19 cases was few. On March 31, the day the polls were notified the number of COVID-19 cases recorded were 129, already climbing from the two digit figure it had fallen to. A little over three weeks later, the number of cases is over 1400 a day.
Nobody could have imagined that such a figure of daily cases in Goa was feasible. Neither when the pandemic first hit Goa, nor later when in the first wave the number had gone to over 700 a day. But it has come to that and restrictions have been imposed, but the polls are being held, with the mandated COVID-19 precautions in place. Are the towns prepared for a polling day in a pandemic? It is not merely the physical distancing, use of masks in the queue and at the booth, and the hand sanitisation. Where the elections are concerned the rules cannot remain merely on paper but implemented to decrease the risk of transmission.
Let’s not look at the use of personal protection kits at the moment as it may not be possible for election staff to spend an entire day in them in the current weather conditions. Here, however, are a few suggestions from the World Health Organisation on polling day precautions that could have made a difference in polling since the government has. Besides increasing the polling booths and the polling time, and decreasing the time a voter spends in the booth and interaction with the staff, WHO has suggested that there be staggered arrival of voters at the booth and separate accesses with the entry and exit in such positioning that there is a unidirectional flow of voters.
It is going to be extremely important for the government to ensure that all precautions are taken, not just at the time of polling, but later too. Very important also is the sanitization of the voting booths after polling, as the booths are often accommodated in government premises that are at other times used for other purposes. The number of people that will be using these premises on a single day will increase on election day, proportionately raising the risk of contamination. We cannot compare these elections with those that took place a month ago. The situation was far different. The measures of that election may not be sufficient for the current polls. Is Goa equipped to give a COVID-free poll?
