All arrangements are in place for counting of votes for Mysuru parliamentary constituency to be taken up on Thursday. Nearly 2,000 police personnel have been deployed to ensure that there are no untoward incidents.
Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Sankar, who is also the District Election Officer, told media persons that the counting of votes will commence from 8 a.m. at the Maharani’s College of Commerce and Management on Valmiki Road. He said they expect nearly 6,500 postal ballots to have been cast and they have to be counted first.
This will be followed by the counting of EVM votes and it will be taken up in 15 rooms encompassing all the 8 Assembly segments in the constituency for which the authorities have deployed around 1,200 persons.
“In all, 13,12,404 voters have exercised their franchise and there will be 19 rounds of counting. We can complete around to 2 to 2.5 rounds of counting per hour and hence the official final announcement of the result can take place only around 3 p.m.’’, he added.
Mr. Sankar saidthe VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) counting will start only after the completion of the EVM counting, as per the directives of the Election Commission of India.
The process of counting the VVPAT has also been delineated and 5 units of VVPATs will be selected from each Assembly segment at random in the presence of the candidates or their agents. After the random selection, the VVPAT paper slips will be matched or tallied with the votes recorded in the EVM and in case of any discrepancy, the VVPAT result will be deemed as final and will be added to the result sheet, said Mr. Abhiram Sankar.
Enclosure
A separate enclosure with mesh and adequate protection to prevent the paper slips from being blown away by wind, has been made at the counting centre.
The entry of unauthorised persons to the counting centre is banned and there is a three-tier security layer in place manned by senior police officials.
The staff deployed for counting have already been imparted training from April 16 to 20 and would be allotted their respective counting tables after randomisation process.
Security arrangements
There will be two officers of the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), 6 ACPs, 22 inspectors, 23 sub-inspectors, and 103 assistant sub-inspectors.
This is apart from 6 platoons of City Armed Reserve, 3 platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP), 10 mounted police, 30 commandos, 40 mobile Garuda force, and 78 Cheetah squad, said Muthuraj, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order).
Prohibitory orders under Section 144 will be in place from midnight of May 23. Victory procession and bursting of crackers have been banned by the authorities.
