All is set for the counting of votes for the Pudukottai Assembly constituency by-election on Friday.
The counting of votes will commence at 8 a.m. and all arrangements at the counting centre have been completed. Counting will take place at 10 tables, each monitored by three officials – a monitoring officer, assistant officer and micro-observer. The counting of postal votes will be taken up initially, for which separate officials have been nominated.
The work of fixing video cameras over each of the ten tables to videograph the entire counting process was undertaken on Thursday and completed by afternoon. The Collector V. Kalaiarasi, who is the District Election Officer and S. Muthumari, Returning Officer, inspected the video cameras installation works and gave last minute instructions to the officials.
The final phase of training programme to the counting officials was held at the counting centre at the Government Arts College for Women campus, in the presence of Premsingh Mehra, Election Observer (general). Mrs. Kalaiarasi urged the participants to discharge their duties strictly as per the Election Commission norms, without giving any room for complaints.
K. Nagarajan, District Revenue Officer and Mrs. Muthumari imparted training to them and clarified their doubts. S. Sokkan, PA (general) to the Collectors, A. Karuppiah, assistant returning officer and K. Venkatasubramanian, election tahsildar, were also present on the occasion.
Meanwhile, the police continued have a close vigil in the whole constituency. Police pickets were once again posted across the constituency to monitor the situation and vehicle checks were continued. The BSF and the local police personnel were manning the counting centre round the clock.
The polling took place in the constituency on June 12 and 20 candidates are in the fray.
