The fate of numerous candidates in the district will be revealed within the first there hours of counting which will get under way on the Wednesday morning. Months of campaigning and canvassing will culminate on May 8, when the district administration will begin the counting process.
Beginning around 7.30 a.m., the counting of the votes will take place in 15 to 17 rounds of 200 polling stations each (each round is estimated to take around 10 minutes); and around 11.30 a.m., the results of all the 1,715 polling booths in the district will be known, Harsh Gupta, Deputy Commissioner, told presspersons on Monday.
Counting will begin with the manual verification of postal ballots. As of May 5, a total of 5,736 ballots had been received, said the Deputy Commissioner.
The electronic voting machines are now at Canara College, Kodialbail — the counting centre. Each of the eight constituencies will be provided with four tables and each table will be assigned a sector officer, counting supervisor and a micro observer.
Counting agents, who represent candidates, will be allowed to enter. However, mobile phones are not allowed in the room, and all those entering the room will be frisked, said Mr. Gupta.
The Deputy Commissioner said that according to the guidelines and election criteria mentioned by the Election Commission, polling stations that have recorded a variation of 15 per cent increase or decrease from the average voting need to be cross-checked for rigging. Out of 1,715 polling booths, only 17 have recorded this fluctuation, he said. “This represents a very small percentage of polling stations. Officials will go through the registers, signatures and forms to check for anything amiss,” said Mr. Gupta.
