According to the State Election Commission, COVID-19 positive patients will be allowed to vote in the last hour of polling and they will have to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) kits. Shockingly, earlier Health Minister Vishwajit Rane had publicly said he was unaware of the decision to allow the patients to vote, and that neither he nor the Health Department had been consulted on the decision. As per his views, if such a decision has been taken, then the polling staff and the COVID-19 positive voters would have to wear PPE kits. The guidelines from the SEC came after that.
One is left to wonder whether the decision to allow COVID-19 positive patients was taken without considering the other guidelines in force due to the pandemic. COVID-19 patients are either hospitalised or are isolated at home – in a room – without interaction even with family members so as to not spread the contagion. Why then would these persons who are mandatorily asked not to step out of the single room they are occupying, be allowed to leave their house, make their way to the polling booth, mingle among other persons – including polling staff – who are not infected so as to vote? As of now, the SEC has been silent on the polling staff being made to use PPE kits. In this case, not only is the polling staff being put at risk, but even other voters, who may be at the polling station in queue to cast their vote, when the positive patients also arrive.
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As of today there are approximately 1300 active COVID-19 cases, spread across the State. The identity of the positive patients is being kept secret, but if they leave their house in PPE kits and have to also prove their identity to the polling staff, won’t the identity be leaked? That, however, is the least of the worries. The biggest worry is the spread of the virus to others and the polling staff will at the greatest risk in this case. Additionally, the booth level officer has been instructed to identify COVID-19 positive patients in each polling station, and based on this the required number of PPE kits and hand gloves would be provided to such voters when they come to the polling station for voting.
Planning and holding an election in the midst of a pandemic is not an easy task. No doubt that everyone who is eligible to vote should be given the opportunity to cast the ballot, and so the COVID-19 patients cannot be kept out. Last month Bihar went to the polls, the first State in the country to hold elections since the pandemic began. In Bihar, amidst much worry, the Election Commission of India allowed persons aged over 65 and those who had been infected by the COVID-19 virus to vote via postal ballots. Why can’t a similar situation be adopted for the Zilla Panchayat polls in Goa?
Opposition political parties are already questioning the decision to allow COVID-19 positive patients to go to the polling booth and vote. The elections are now 24 hours away, but there is still time to amend the guidelines and give at least the COVID-19 positive persons the opportunity to vote from home. If postal ballots are now not possible, then ballots in a sealed cover can be handed over to the BLOs. Simultaneously, those over 65 years of age who are the most vulnerable section are also being put to risk this election by making them go to the polling station to vote. The State Election had ample time to put together the plan for the polls, but it appears to have failed where it matters most.
