With just a few days left for the counting of votes polled in the Assembly elections in Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal and Puducherry, the Election Commission has appointed 287 more observers to ensure that the process is transparent.
These observers, mostly IAS officers, are in addition to 414 general observers who have been on duty since polling was held. In all, 701 observers will be on duty during the counting scheduled for May 13, sources in the Election Commission said.
In Tamil Nadu and West Bengal alone, one observer each will be deployed for every constituency. For the 294 constituencies in West Bengal, 294 observers will be on duty, and in Tamil Nadu, the number of observers will be 234. Kerala with a total of 140 seats will have 81 observers, Assam with 126 seats will have 80 observers and Puducherry with 30 seats will have 12 observers. The sources said the observers were asked to be in their place of posting at least one day before the counting and in the counting hall well before the counting begins at 8 a.m. The postal ballots will be counted first.
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