All party meeting decides to urge poll panel to postpone Kuttanad, Chavara by-elections in Kerala

An all party meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan decided to urge the Election Commission to postpone Kuttanad, Chavara by-elections in Kerala, an official release said on Friday.

"The decision to request the Central Election Commission to postpone the Kuttanad and Chavara assembly by-elections was taken today at an all-party meeting chaired by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The unmous decision to postpone elections was taken in light of the prevailing pandemic, said the Chief Minister at the press conference. A decision was also taken to request the state election commission to temporarily postpone the local self-government elections," it said.

As per the release, leaders of political parties attending the meeting felt that, if by-elections in both seats are held in November, then there will only be three months in office for elected members (December - February), which is negligible in comparison to election expenses.

"Section 151A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 states that a vacancy must be filled within six months. There has been a six-month vacancy in the Kuttanad constituency since December 20, 2019 due to the death of Thomas Chandy. There has been a vacancy in the Chavara constituency since March 8, 2020," it added

Observing that lections to local bodies are imminent, leaders also felt that new governing bodies of the panchayats, municipalities and corporations are likely to assume office in November 2020, which is a constitutional obligation.

"Due to the spread of COVID-19, the entire government machinery is working on the pandemic-relief effort. Cases have spiked to 3,349 people testing positive yesterday. Elections may impose an unnecessary financial burden. Beyond that, it is irrelevant to the essence of popular representation. Considering all this, a consensus to postpone was reached at the all-party meeting," the release added.

( With inputs from ANI )