Six-phase Bihar polls from Oct 21

The Election Commission on Monday set the ball rolling for elections to the 243-member Bihar Assembly.

The Election Commission on Monday set the ball rolling for elections to the 243-member Bihar Assembly. The elections,spread over six phases,will start a week after the Commonwealth Games.

The first phase of polls will be held on October 21 and the last phase on November 20; counting of votes will take place on November 24. Notification for the first phase will be issued on September 27. The Model Code of Conduct has come into force with immediate affect.

The commission has taken additional precautions in view of concerns over electronic voting machines,unauthorised expenditure by candidates and possible Naxalite violence. Political parties will be involved in the first-level checking of EVMs before they are released for voting. Also,micro observers will be deputed to closely monitor election expenses.

Announcing the poll schedule,Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi said the commission had issued a new set of instructions regarding the first-level check of EVMs.

A two-stage randomisation of EVMs will be made. In the first stage,all the EVMs will be randomised in the presence of representatives of recognised political parties for allocation Assembly constituency wise. Earlier,this randomisation used to happen only in presence of technical persons and officials of the Election Commission. In the second stage,the EVMs will be randomised again for allocation to polling booths, Quraishi said.

In view of possible Naxalite violence,the commission has decided that elections in 47 constituencies will end two hours earlier to ensure the security of polling parties. While polling will take place between 7 am and 5 pm in most Assembly constituencies,in these 47 segments booths will close at 3 pm.

Elections will be held on October 21 47 Assembly segments,October 24 45 Assembly segments,October 28 48 Assembly segments,November 1 42 Assembly segments,November 9 35 Assembly segments,and November 20 26 Assembly segments.

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By-election to Banka parliamentary constituency,which fell vacant after the death of sitting MP Digvijay Singh in June this year,will be held on November 1.

Quraishi defended the six-phase elections,saying the 2005 polls were almost of the same duration.