All set for counting

Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar (second right), Additional Chief Electoral Officer P. Amudha (right) and District Collectors P. Umanath (Coimbatore), C. Kamaraj (Erode) at a training programme on counting of votes for poll officials from seven districts held at the CODISSIA Trade Fair Complex in Coimbatore on Wednesday. Photo:M. Periasamy.

The month-long anxious wait for the outcome of the Assembly elections will be over on Friday when the counting of votes begins at 91 centres all over the State at 8 a.m.

Initially, postal ballots will be taken up for counting. Half an hour later, the counting of votes recorded by electronic voting machines (EVMs) will begin.

By evening, the full picture of the position of parties will emerge. Totally, 2,748 candidates including 137 women, are in the fray.

According to Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar, the results of the first round of counting are expected around 9-30 a.m. This time, the results of all constituencies in the entire State will be known at least two-three hours later than on the previous occasion.

Asked about the use of totaliser [a device to which all EVMs used in a constituency will be linked so that total votes polled by each candidate can be obtained at one go, which helps in protecting the identity of voters], the CEO said the Commission could not take a decision on the issue, even though the design of the totaliser had been finalised. The legal hitch was that the rules on counting had to be amended to enable the use of totaliser.