All arrangements are in place in the district for the counting of votes on May 2, District Collector Navjot Khosa has said. The counting will start with the postal ballots at 8 a.m., and by 8.30 a.m., the counting of votes polled in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) will begin.
The votes polled in 10 Assembly segments in the district will be counted at various centres at the Mar Ivanios Nagar, Nalanchira. They are as follows; silver jubilee auditorium of the Sarvodaya ICSE School (Varkala segment); St. Peter’s block of Sarvodaya ICSE School (Attingal); Mar Ivanios College Auditorium (Chirayinkeezhu); St. John’s HSS (Nedumangad); third floor of the main building of Mar Ivanios College (Vamanapuram); third floor of the Mar Gregorios College of Law (Aruvikkara); Sarvodaya CBSE School (Parassala); Mar Baselios College of Engineering (Kattakada); Mar Theophilus Training College (Kovalam); ground floor, Mar Gregorios College of Law (Neyyattinkara).
The counting centres for the remaining four constituencies are as follows: Loyola School, Sreekaryam (Kazhakuttam); St. Mary’s School, Pattom (Vattiyurkavu); Manacaud Government Girls HSS (Thiruvananthapuram); Government GHSS, Cotton Hill (Nemom).
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Three counting halls each have been arranged for each segment at these centres, given the need to strictly follow COVID-19 guidelines. Each will have seven tables. The counting is designed to be completed in 15-16 rounds with 21 booths per round, the Collector said.
Number of tables
Postal ballots will be counted at separate tables. There will be four to eight tables in each centre, depending on the number of ballots that are returned.
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The last two rounds of EVM votes will be counted only after the postal ballots in a constituency are counted in full. The victor will be declared after the counting of slips in five of the VVPAT machines. The five machines will be decided by a draw of lots. Arrangements for the counting process have been completed in sync with the COVID-19 guidelines, the Collector said.