The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday banned victory processions after the declaration of Assembly election results in Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, West Bengal and Kerala on May 2 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The decision came a day after the Madras High Court, in a strongly worded order, blamed the commission for the second wave of the pandemic in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. The court observed that the commission had entirely failed to enforce COVID-19 protocols during campaigning. “Public health is of paramount importance, and it is distressing that constitutional authorities have to be reminded in such regard,” the court said in its order.

On Tuesday the Commission said it had decided to make more stringent measures to be followed during the process of counting. It said no victory processions would be allowed after the counting of votes and only a maximum of two people would be allowed to accompany the winning candidate or their authorised representative to receive the certificate of election from the Returning Officer. Welcome as this move is, it is worth reflecting on the Commission’s laxity in enforcing guidelines thus far, especially as more serological evidence comes to light of campaign events leading to surges in COVID-9 cases.

The Commission had issued guidelines for elections in August last year, such as wearing masks, using sanitisers, maintaining physical distancing, among others. Several warnings had to be issued for violations during the Bihar polls held last year and yet these guidelines were simply ‘reiterated’ for the current round of Assembly polls. Action against violations was only taken on April 16 when the commission banned campaigning from 7 p.m. to 10 a.m. and extended the silence period before polling from 48 hours to 72 hours. By then polling was over in Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, and only three of the eight phases remained in West Bengal. Making campaigning virtual, an idea proposed by many experts and which we discussed in the last edition of The Hindu’s parley podcast, would have been the right move. However, for the ECI, it is better late than never. That marks this story out as our top pick of the day.

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