The DMK won a majority of 86 posts of panchyat union ward member for which results were declared till 9 p.m. while the AIADMK won 30 seats.
Among 11 posts of district panchayat president, the AIADMK won one seat, while rival Dravidian parties were leading in five posts each. Counting of votes for the rural local body elections held for 11 panchayat unions in the district began at 11 centres at 8 a.m. on Thursday and it would continue throughout the night.
While the DMK won 46 seats (out of 86) for the posts of panchayat union ward member and its allies five, the AIADMK won 30 seats. Amma Makkal Munetra Kazhagam was victorious in three seats and BJP and Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam won one each.
Virudhunagar Collector R. Kannan said that after counting ballot papers, officials had to wait for the outcome of counting of postal votes.
“As postal votes had come from all over the State and they were accepted till 6 a.m. on Thursday, we did not want to take a chance on the final outcome. So, declaration was delayed till the last postal vote was counted,” he said.
Counting process
The counting process started with lifting of ballot boxes from strong rooms at respective counting centres. Apart from armed police personnel posted outside sealed doors of strong room, it was monitored with closed circuit television cameras.
After taking them to the sorting room, the ballot papers were dumped on tables in the presence of counting agents of candidates. Officials sorted out the ballot papers meant for four posts of panchayat ward member, panchayat president, panchayat union ward member and district panchayat ward member. The sorting was done based on different colours of ballot papers.
On completion of the process, ballot papers were counted with the record on number of votes polled in each booth.
“Except for a few cases where one or two ballot papers were missing, the tally was intact,” an official at counting centre for Virudhunagar panchyat union said.
The separated ballot papers are taken to the counting halls – different counting halls for four different posts. Here, the officials unfolded the ballot papers and displayed the arrow cross mark left by voters for electing the candidate of their choice and they are again sorted out based on the votes gone to each candidate. Separate boxes were kept for ballot papers with invalid votes.
After ballot papers were verified for the votes cast against different candidate/symbols, the votes secured by each of the candidate was counted and results declared.
The counting halls were secured with iron mesh enclosures to keep counting agents of the candidates away from ballot papers. All the counting halls were being monitored by CCTVs.
A total of 7,84,577 votes polled in 2,492 ballot boxes have to be counted. The outcome would decide the fate of 9,525 candidates in the fray for 2,959 posts. A total of 1,083 posts had been already won unopposed.
