For officials manning the 28 counting centres in the district where polling materials, including Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), were returned at the end of the polls on Thursday evening had a long night, as most of them could return only in the early hours of Friday.
Staff from the respective block panchayats and panchayats and the office of the Returning Officers concerned were roped in to manage the counting centres. They started coming in around 4.30 p.m. and had a session an hour later on how to go about their job as soon as polling officials returned.
“The first batch of polling officials arrived only after 8 p.m., and the heavy rain did not make things easy for them either,” said a panchayat official deployed at UC College at Aluva, which is the collection-cum-counting centre for the four panchayats of Alangad block.
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Polling officials straightaway headed to Returning Officers deployed alongside strongrooms where EVMs were verified against an elaborate checklist. “There were long queues before strongrooms, with the quick disposal being proportionate to the experience of the Returning Officers concerned,” said another official.
Once the verification of EVMs was completed, polling officials were issued slips, which they had to produce at counters where they were required to submit different covers containing statutory and non-statutory forms. The number of counters set was directly proportionate to the number of booths for quick disposal.
The day proved tough not just for the counting centre officials but was equally or more stressful for polling officials whose gruelling duty began a day before the elections.
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“Physical distancing was honoured more in the breach outside the polling booth. Though inside the booth we restricted to three voters at a time, and even that had to be compromised at times, as the queue lengthened and booth agents and voters exerted pressure,” said a polling official deployed at Bharata Mata College, Thrikkakara. However, there was no dearth of masks, gloves, and sanitisers though, as voting intensified, using those protective devices often proved to be a hindrance.
He said that the receipt of the marked copy of the electoral roll was delayed, as it was made available well past 9 p.m. on the night before polling, stripping officials of the much-needed preparations. “Even at distribution centres, we were not encouraged to check polling materials as is usually done, which is quite useful, as it helps relatively inexperienced officials to calm their nerves by clarifying things in consultation with experienced ones,” an official said.
He added that some confusion had prevailed at counting centres at the time of submission of polling materials, which, he felt, could have been avoided, if necessary guidelines had been issued in advance, thus helping the already exhausted polling officials of returning home at the earliest.
That polling and counting centre officials were given off on Friday to sleep off their fatigue proved to be of some comfort.