How EC decides poll schedule — and why it changed Mizoram’s counting date

In a press release, the ECI said Sundays hold “special significance for the people of Mizoram” (and were therefore unsuitable for counting of votes) — referring to the fact that most people in the Christian-majority and deeply religious state attend church on Sunday mornings.

What does the Election Commission take into account while deciding the schedule for elections?

The election schedule includes all dates from the date of issue of gazette notification to the date before which the election process shall be completed. For ordinary voters, the two most important dates in the schedule are the date(s) of polling and counting.

The ECI can notify elections at any time within six months of the end of the term of Lok Sabha or a state Assembly, according to Sections 14 and 15 respectively of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The election process has to be completed before the expiration of the existing term of Lok Sabha or the state Assembly.

While deciding the election schedule, the ECI looks at the availability and requirements for the movement of security forces, the logistics of arranging electronic voting machines (EVMs) and poll officials, as well as major national and local festivals, and the prevailing law and order situation.

If the terms of multiple state Assemblies are ending around the same time, the ECI tries to hold the elections together. While polling may be held on different days, the counting of votes usually happens on the same day.

So, what happened in this current round of Assembly elections?

After officials of the ECI, and the three Election Commissioners themselves, had made a series of visits to the five states to oversee preparations, the Commission announced the election schedule on October 9. Voting was to be held on four days — with Mizoram and roughly half the seats in Chhattisgarh going first on November 7, and Telangana last on November 30. Counting for all five states was scheduled on December 3.

According to sources in the ECI, the Commission did make sure that voting in Mizoram was not scheduled on a Sunday because a large number of electors attend church on Sunday. But counting was scheduled on a Sunday, along with the other four states.

However, after receiving several representations that counting should also not be on a Sunday, the ECI decided on December 1 to push back the counting in Mizoram by a day to December 4, Monday.

Have counting dates for elections been shifted earlier?

Yes, dates have been changed in earlier elections too, and various reasons have been given by the ECI.

In Mizoram itself, the ECI had initially announced that counting of votes in the Assembly elections of 2013 would be held on December 8, a Sunday, but had then changed the date to December 9, Monday.

In this round of elections, polling in Rajasthan was initially scheduled for November 23 — however, two days after making the announcement, the date was revised to November 25.

The ECI said political parties and social organisations had pointed out that there were “large scale wedding/ social engagement on that day which may cause inconvenience to large number of people”.