Election Commission: Tests facilitated for 90% of counting employees

The Election Commission (EC) mentioned Saturday that near 90 % of the 1.5 lakh counting brokers of candidates who contested Assembly elections in 4 states and one UT have been “facilitated” to check for Covid-19 an infection forward of relying on May 2.
For the remaining, the EC mentioned, Covid-19 assessments have been organized by the respective District Election Officers (DEOs). “The Commission has also directed to accept test reports from any authorised lab,” the EC’s launch states.
The Commission has greater than doubled the variety of counting halls — from 1002 in 2016 to 2,364 this time — to comply with social distancing and different Covid-safety measures. That aside, 1,100 counting observers have been deputed to step in case of any “pandemic-related replacement.”
Counting on Sunday will probably be carried out by roughly 95,000 officers together with micro observers. The EC this week made it necessary for all contesting candidates and their polling brokers to both take a look at damaging for Covid-19 or present proof of getting obtained each doses of vaccines to enter the counting centres on May 2. This instruction is a part of the Commission’s detailed Covid-19 protocol launched Wednesday for the counting day when the outcomes of the Assembly elections held in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry will probably be declared.

The directions come a number of days after the Madras High COurt got here down closely on the EC for “not stopping political parties” from violating Covid protocols throughout their marketing campaign rallies final month.