With the actual counting of ballots beginning late in the evening, the result of the North Andhra Graduates’ Constituency in the Legislative Council is expected by Tuesday morning.
The counting, at the Swarna Bharati Indoor Stadium, was taken up at 7 p.m. at 14 tables with 1,000 votes at each of the tables. For counting, the separation of votes as per the choice of the voters to various contestants and into compartments from bundles of 25 each began.
The votes thus separated will be counted, bundled again into 25 votes of each and after a decision on “doubtful” votes, the total votes would be tallied after which the result of the first round would be announced.
Each of the ballot was unfolded, shown to the polling agents and put in the respective compartments. A total of 1,08,857 votes had to be counted in eight rounds with the last round falling short of 14,000 votes.
30 nominees in fray
A total of 30 candidates are in the fray though the contest is between PDF’s A. Aja Sarma and TDP-backed BJP nominee P.V.N. Madhav.
The counting could be completed early only if one of the nominees gets 50 per cent plus one of the first preference in polled votes.
However, if no one emerges winner with such majority, the process of selective elimination by adding the second priority votes of the last candidate is resorted to. And the process continues till a winner emerges.
Tight security
The process for counting of votes began at the stadium at 8 a.m. amid tight security.
The postal ballots were taken up first. Of the 162 postal ballots issued to election staff, 116 exercised their franchise and 20 of them were invalid.
The sealed ballot boxes were later opened. A total of 502 boxes containing votes from Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts the ballots were cast were brought from the strong room.
After opening of the boxes and mixing them, bundles of 25 votes each were made. The progress had been time-consuming and only 22,000 ballots were bundled by 1 p.m.
Election Observer K. Pravin Kumar, Collector and Returning Officer Pravin Kumar and Joint Collector G. Srijana are overseeing the counting process involving around 300 personnel.
The counting was taken up amid tight security at the stadium.
