Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter-Verified Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) received from all the polling stations in Madurai Parliamentary constituency were kept in the strong rooms in Madurai Medical College, the designated counting centre, on Friday.
With the poll timing for Madurai constituency extended till 8 p.m. on Thursday due to Chithirai festival, it took till Friday morning for all the EVMs and VVPATs to reach the counting centre. Personnel deployed in some of the far away polling stations said that zonal parties came to collect the machines only close to midnight.
The machines were kept in strong rooms in the presence of candidates and their representatives.
The strong rooms were sealed in the presence of District Election Officer S. Natarajan, General Observer Vinodkumar and representatives of candidates. Mr. Natarajan said that Central Armed Police Forces would be safeguarding the strong rooms. The counting takes place on May 23.
