Opposition political parties and the apex students’ organisation in Arunachal Pradesh have slammed the State Election Commission (SEC) for deciding to conduct the local body elections despite COVID-19 worries.
The Congress, the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA) and the Janata Dal (Secular) have also threatened to take the SEC to court if the polls are not deferred. They said the panchayat and municipal elections had already been postponed by two years and delaying them by a few more months for the sake of public health would make no difference.
The parties also said the election date was close to Christmas, a major festival of people in the State, while the process would clash with the harvesting season of the farmers.
State Election Commissioner Hage Kojeen had on November 12 announced December 22 as the date for holding elections to 25 zilla parishads with 241 constituencies and 2,215 gram sabhas with 8,436 seats. The election to 28 wards in two municipal corporations — Itanagar and Pasighat — was scheduled on the same date.
“The SEC did not hold the elections when the Gauhati High Court directed it to. It now wants to hold the polls when the situation is so vulnerable. Arunachal is in a danger zone with active COVID-19 cases increasing,” State Congress general secretary Toko Mina said.
Reminding the SEC of the jump in COVID-19 cases a day after Mizoram conducted the rural polls in October, the Congress and the other parties demanded deferment of the local body polls in Arunachal Pradesh.
PPA working president Kahfa Bengia said the opposition parties would go to court if the polls were ideally not held after March next year.
“Will you guarantee that no one will be infected with the virus? If there is fatality, will you take the responsibility?” he asked the SEC.
The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union also said the commission should reconsider its decision to hold the polls in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the State’s weak health infrastructure, conducting the polls in December would tantamount to playing with the lives of the people, it said.
