Later this year, beyond the Bihar assembly elections, the Election Commission on Monday asked all states and UTS Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) to do webcasting – live video recording and monitoring – for 100% polling stations for polling day activities, extended it from the first instructions of 50%.
An EC official said that this would apply to Bihar elections, which is expected in October or November. In the instructions of the CEO on Monday, the EC wrote that the Commission had deployed several “civil (non-force) measures” to monitor various stages of the election process, including using webcasting on Pol Day.
“Now … it has been decided that webcasting will be done in all polling stations i.e. in 100% polling stations with internet connectivity. However, in shade areas, appropriate alternative arrangements for videography, photography etc. can be made,” can be read in EC instructions.
The EC instructions come at a time when the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha is demanding Rahul Gandhi to release the CCTV footage of Pol Day in EC Maharashtra. Earlier this month, he alleged that the 2024 Maharashtra poll was “match-fixing” and asked that the EC released the video footage of voting after 5 pm.
Video feed from polling stations comes in control room at the state, district and assembly constituency-level. Staff is deployed here to see live footage and if they see any violation or suspicious activity, they are to inform the presiding officer, sector officer, returning officer, district election officer (DEO) or EC-EC-E-appointed supervisor.
According to the instructions, cameras do not mean to face the voting unit and VVPAT, so the privacy of the vote can be maintained. However, they are to see any violation, in which another voter or officer enters the voting compartment, while a voter is casting his vote, if the voting process is stopped or delayed for any reason, and if there is an unauthorized person at the polling station.
So far, in the LS elections last year and the recent first assembly elections in Delhi in 2025, EC has made 100% webcasting of all polling stations “minimum 50% webcasting” and 100% webcasting of all identified important polling stations.
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