ECI Making All Arrangements For Counting

Chennai:Election Commission of India (ECI) put the final voting figures for the April 23 Assembly elections at 85.10 percent and said the authorities were making all final arrangements for the counting of the votes on Monday, May 4, at 62 centres located in all the 38 districts across the State.Among the districts, Kanyakumari recorded the lowest percentage of polling on April 23 with just 75.55 percent of the voters turning up to exercise their franchise and Salem recorded the highest percentage of 90.75 in polling and the capital city of Chennai saw a voter turnout of 83.68 percent. The EVMs, shifted to strong rooms across the State and kept under heavy security by forces drawn from the para military organisations, special police and State police teams, would be brought to the counting tables in the morning of May 4 and laid out on the tables with counting agents of all registered parties keeping a close vigil over the process. While every district has one counting centre, Madurai has 5, Salem and Cuddalore have 4 each, Chennai, Thiruvallur, Villupuram, Thanjavur and Chengalpattu have 3 each and Erode, Tiruvannamalai, Kallakurichi have two each. According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Archana Patnaik, postal ballots would be taken up for counting at 8.00 am as the first thing on May 4 in the counting centres, where the final round of counting of votes cast in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would start only after accounting for all the postal ballots. Enumerating the procedures that would be followed at the 62 counting centres, Patnaik, in a statement on Monday, said that votes polled in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would be counted in rounds from 8.30 am and in every centre one section would be dedicated to postal ballots. Separate Assistant Returning Officers (ARO Level) would supervise each section and postal ballots would be counted at a ratio of one table for every 500 postal ballots, Patnaik said, adding that out of the 3.60 lakh officials deployed for election duty, 2.88 lakh (80%), who registered and applied for postal ballots, had cast their votes. Taking into account the police personnel, Zonal/Sector officers, and surveillance team members, a total of 3.36 lakh officials on election duty voted via postal ballot, while 1.10 lakh officials voted directly at polling stations using Election Duty Certificates (EDC), she said. Based on Form 12D applications, a total of 1.73 lakh voters (comprising those aged 85+ and Persons with Disabilities) received and cast postal ballots. So far, 18,000 Service Voters had cast their votes and their postal ballots would be accepted until 8:00 am on the day of counting. Beyond those who voted at polling stations, arrangements were made to facilitate voting for an additional 6.37 lakh voters and their votes had been successfully collected, she said.



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