The Election Commission of India has announced the election schedule for Bye Elections to the Manipur Legislative Assembly in respect of 30-Lilong and 34-Wangjing Tentha Assembly Constituencies and the poll date falls on 7^th November 2020. With the announcement of the election schedule by the Election Commission of India, the Model Code of Conduct comes into effect immediately and will apply in the entire district of Thoubal since both the Assembly Constituencies cover under Thoubal district, Joint Chief Electoral Officer  Ramananda Nongmeikapam stated today in a press conference held at the conference hall of the Chief Electoral Officer, Lamphelpat, Manipur.

He further told that the schedule for the Bye elections for the aforementioned two assembly constituencies are —issue of notification on 13^th October 2020; last date of making nominations on 20^th October 2020; scrutiny of nominations on 21^st October 2020; last date for withdrawal of candidature on 23^rd October 2020; date of the poll on 7^th November 2020; counting of votes on 10^th November 2020 and completion of the election process on 12^th November 2020.

The total number of electors based on final roll 2020 publication for these two constituencies are 63611(out of which 30930 are male; 32678 are female and 3 are the third gender).  Altogether, there will be 92 polling stations (49 polling stations at 30- Lilong and 43 polling stations at 34-Wangjing Tentha) for the two assembly constituencies. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the facility of the postal ballot will extend to persons with a disability, electors with age greater than 80 years and home & institutional quarantine persons added  Ramananda Nongmeikapam.           

Election Commission of India has framed broad guidelines for the conduct of General elections/ Bye-Elections during COVID-19, only two persons can accompany the candidate for submission of a nomination to Returning Officers; the number of vehicles for the purpose of the same is restricted to two; only five persons can accompany the candidate for the door-to-door campaign;  nodal health officers shall be designated for the state, district and assembly constituency to oversee the COVID-19 related arrangements and preventive measures during the entire electoral process etc. are among the guidelines,  the Joint Chief Electoral Officer informed and appealed for strict adherence to the model code of conduct.