Chief Election Officer Anupam Rajan announced that counting for 29 parliamentary constituencies in Madhya Pradesh Lok Sabha Election 2024 will be held across 52 district headquarters on June 4 from 8.00 am. Counting of postal ballots will start at 8 am in 29 Returning Officer (RO) headquarters. Following this, counting of votes from EVMs will commence here from 8:30 am whereas it is set to start from 8 am in 23 districts.

All arrangements have been made for counting of votes. All Returning Officers, Assistant Returning Officers, Collectors and District Election Officers, Police Commissioners and Superintendents of Police have been instructed to strictly follow the security norms. Dry day has been declared on the day of counting of votes. In view of the intense heat, all necessary arrangements have been made at the counting venue including cold water, AC, coolers, fans, medical kits, ambulances, temporary hospitals, fire extinguishers, fire brigade.

Three-tier security system has been ensured at the counting place. Individuals possessing authorised pass will be granted with strict measures to prevent unauthorised access. Counting of EVMs and postal ballots will be done in the rooms made as per the instructions of the Commission. There will be three-tier randomization of counting personnel. First and second level randomization has been done. The final stage of randomization is scheduled to take place on June 4 at 5 am in the presence of the observer. 116 observers have been appointed by the Commission for counting of votes of 29 Lok Sabha constituencies, who have reached the districts.

Postal ballots of service voters are being received by post. Postal ballot papers received at the counting centre before 8 am will be included in the counting.

A separate media centre has been set-up for media personnel at the counting centre, where facilities like telephone, computer, printer, calculator and internet etc. will be available. Authorisation letters have been issued by the Commission for media personnel.

There will be one counting supervisor, one counting assistant, one counting staff and one micro observer at the EVM counting table. Similarly, there will be one assistant returning officer, one counting supervisor, two counting assistants and one micro observer at the postal ballot counting table.

The counting agents of the candidates will be present at the EVM/postal ballot table. In the order of their seating, there will be (1) recognised national political parties, (2) such recognised state parties of other states which have been allotted election symbol for that Lok Sabha constituency, (3) unrecognised registered parties and (4) independents. There will be assembly segment wise barricading and colour coding arrangement for taking machines from the strong room to the counting hall, which will have CCTV coverage.

Candidates with passes, election agents, counting agents will be allowed to take blank paper, copy of ballot paper account format 17C part-1, list of EVMs and VVPATs provided by the Returning Officer which have been used in various polling stations and plastic pen or pencil inside the counting hall.

Mobile phones, iPads, laptops, smart watches, cameras, other electronic devices, bidis, cigarettes and gutkha will be banned in the counting hall. Apart from observers, no one is allowed to take mobile phones inside the counting hall. Only ROs, AROs, counting supervisors who are connected to ETPBMS/INCORE will be able to take mobile phones for OTP to open ETPBMS/INCORE.

Rajan stated that counting of postal ballots for 29 Lok Sabha parliamentary constituencies will be done at the Returning Officer Headquarters. Upon completion of postal-ballot count the result will be promptly disclosed of postal ballots candidate-wise.