New Delhi: The Election Commission will hold a review meeting on poll preparedness for the Delhi assembly elections with the Delhi Police Friday, a day after a gunman shot an anti-citizenship law protester in Delhi’s Jamia Nagar.
The meeting, scheduled at 4 pm, comes amid claims by Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi Party that the BJP wants to postpone the elections on the pretext of a deteriorating law and order situation, and the violence in Jamia Nagar was “engineered” to achieve this purpose.
— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) January 30, 2020
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Delhi is due to vote on 8 February, and results will be announced on 11 February.
Asked if a postponement of the Delhi elections was a possibility, a senior official of the Election Commission said, “There was no such discussion, and no chance that this would happen…Quite the contrary, we are holding a review with the Delhi police to assess the situation.”
Another senior official in the poll panel said any such decision can only be taken after the review.
The official did not rule out the possibility of a postponement but said, “There is no such discussion right now, but we have to wait for the review.”
The dates for the Delhi assembly elections were announced earlier this month by the EC. Asked then if the situation was conducive for polls in the wake of ongoing anti-CAA protests in the capital, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had told the media that the EC had held exhaustive meetings with the Delhi Police and found that elections can be held on 8 February.
Can EC postpone polls?
The EC can invoke its powers under the Constitution to cancel or postpone an election. While no express powers to cancel or postpone an election have been mentioned in the Constitution, Article 324 gives the poll body the superintendency as far as the conduct of free and fair elections is concerned.
Various Supreme Court orders have stated that where the law is silent, the EC can invoke Article 324 to ensure elections are conducted without malpractices.
Using these powers, the EC had cancelled the Lok Sabha election in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, in light of heavy cash seizures, last year.
Friday’s meeting will be attended by the EC, Delhi’s chief electoral officer along with district electoral officers, district commissioners of police, nodal officers and the chief executives of local bodies.
This review meeting will be followed by another meeting at 5.30 pm with the chief secretary, NCT Delhi, commissioner police, home secretary, finance secretary, special commissioners of police and CEO, Delhi.
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