New Delhi : The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday announced the schedule for the Gujarat assembly elections. The voting will take place in two phases on December 1 and 5 and the results will be announced on December 8. In the first phase, the state would poll for 89 seats and in the second phase, it would conduct the election on 93 seats.
Addressing a press conference, the chief election commissioner said that for enhanced voting experience, 1274 polling stations will be completely managed by women and security staff. There will be 182 polling stations, where one will be welcomed by PWD. For the 1st time, 33 polling stations will be set up and managed by the youngest available polling staff. The election commission also announced that a special observer in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat for accessibility and inclusion for women, the elderly, PWD will be deployed in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
Answering to a question of why Gujarat polls were not announced, CEC Kumar told reporters that the Election Commission goes by convention in announcing pollschedules. It has decided to go by the convention which was last followed. He asserted that polls in one state would not affect elections in the other as “there is a gap of 40 days” in the qualifying dates of the state assemblies of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.