Returning Officers, Assistant Returning officers get final tips on vote counting

Mahbubnagar: District collector and Election officer for Mahbubnagar, Ronald Rose along with Joint Collector Venkat Rao, gave final tips and conducted a mock counting training class for all the Returning Officers and Assistant Returning officers at Sudarshan convention hall on Monday to ensure a smooth and hurdle free vote counting process on Tuesday, December 11.

In Mahbubnagar there are 5 Assembly constituencies of Mahbubnagar, Jadcherla, Narayanpet, Devarkadra and Makthal and for each constituency the officials have arranged separate counters for vote counting. However, to ensure that the counting supervisors, assistant supervisors, tahasildars and micro observers are well aware of the counting process, the Collector gave special power point presentation and provided a detailed awareness about vote counting and necessary steps and precautions that the officials need to take before counting of the votes.

The election counting is arranged in Jayaprakash Narayana College of Engineering in Mahbubnagar where in the counting will be conducted separately for each constituency in each of the 5 floors of the college.

The officials have arranged one table for each constituency and at every table a minimum of 14 rounds of counting is expected to be conducted. “The Counting Supervisor must switch on the button of the control unit during the counting, while the assistant supervisor should note the process, while the micro observer will check if these two officials are working properly or not. The voting process will be conducted in a transparent manner in the presence of Returning Officers and the agents,” informed Joint Collector Venkat Rao.

It is informed that the counting process will start sharply at 8 am on Tuesday and the counting officials will fist begin counting the postal ballots first. By 8.30 am they will complete the postal ballots and later on the EVM counting will begin. The officials have already marked EVM numbers and its corresponding counting table before hand.

If any attempt to tamper the EVMs on the counting table will be taken very seriously. The district administration has decided not to allow agents with criminal cases into the counting hall. The police have deployed 3-layer securities for the counting day. Mobile phones are not allowed into the counting hall.

Usually, all the EVMs will be closed with the final pressing of close button after the completion of the election process by the Returning Officers. However, in case if, any returning officials have forgotten to press the close button, the EVMs will not open for counting. In such case the RO have been advised to press the close button first and then asked to begin the counting process.

The control unit after reaching its concerned counting table the counting supervisor needs to cross check that the EVM has 3 seals on it. After final confirmation that the EVMS are not tampered, the officials can open the seals in the presence of the agents and then begin the counting process by pressing the total button on the EVM machine.

For the foolproof and transparent manner of counting process the district administration has installed CCTV cameras. The officials are advised to check the form 17C Part 2 before pressing the total button. After pressing the total button the observer will cross check it before declaring it officially, informed the district Collector while explaining about the voting process.

Overall by 11.30 am the district administration is hoping to complete the counting process and final results are expected to be displayed by 2 pm in the afternoon.