All arrangements are in place for counting of votes polled in the Lok Sabha election.
Counting of votes polled in the Tiruchi Lok Sabha constituency will begin at 8 a.m. on Friday at the Saranathan College of Engineering campus, situated on the outskirts of the city off the Tiruchi-Madurai Highway. Elaborate arrangements have been made at the centre and about 540 officials would be involved in the counting of votes.
Counting officials would be allotted different tables based on a manual randomisation to be done before the commencement of the counting process.
There would be 14 counting tables for each of the six Assembly segments in the constituency. A micro observer would be posted to supervise the counting in each table.
Postal ballots would be taken up first for counting and counting of votes polled in the electronic voting machines would begin 30 minutes later.
This time, the Election Commission has instructed that the results of each round of counting should be declared only after being verified by the Returning Officer of the constituency.
With 29 candidates in the fray for the constituency, 1,141 agents would witness the counting.
Additional observersTwo more observers, B.L. Goyal and R.S. Guptha, have been appointed by the Election Commission to oversee the counting of votes in the constituency apart from the General Observer Harendra Nath Bora.
Mr. Bora would supervise the counting in Tiruchi East and Tiruchi West Assembly segments while Mr.Goyal will look after Srirangam and Tiruverumbur segments.
Mr. Guptha will be in-charge of Pudukottai and Gandharvakottai Assembly segments.
District Collector and Returning Officer Jayashree Muralidharan and the Observers inspected the arrangements made at the counting centre on Thursday.
Tight security has been made at the counting centre with over 450 cops being deployed for security.