ECI gears up for Counting of postal ballots
Bhopal: Counting of postal ballots in all 230 Vidhan Sabha constituencies will be undertaken as per directives of Election Commission of India. Instructions have been given to district election officers to undertake counting with full transparency. The commission has said that if under any circumstances arises for re-counting then entire process should be video-graphed and its CD should be kept in envelop for future. District election officers have been directed to start counting of postal ballots at 8 am and counting of votes in EVMs 30 minutes later. The district election officers have been asked to arrange separate tables for counting of postal ballots. Candidates and their election agents should be advised to appoint separate counting agents for counting of postal ballots. DEOs have also been directed to appoint a separate assistant returning officer (ARO) for counting of postal ballots. Observers and district election officers will simultaneously inspect counting of postal ballots and EVM votes. Before finalising tally of votes, returning officers will personally verify and resolve issue of rejected postal ballots through discussions with candidate’s agents.
Counting of votes to be held at 51 district HQs
Bhopal: Counting of votes in 230 Vidhan Sabha constituencies in the State will be held at 51 district headquarters on December 8 from 8 am. Office of the Chief Electoral Officer has issued guidelines in this regard to all district election officers. It has been directed that separate room should be arranged for observer at counting venue with facility of telephone, fax etc. Returning officers have been asked to obtain necessary permission from concerning observer before declaring election results. Postal ballots should also be counted under supervision of concerning observer.
Control room set up at CEO’s office
Bhopal: A control room has been set up at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer for giving updated information regarding counting of votes in 230 Vidhan Sabha constituencies in the State on December 8. Responsibility has been entrusted to officers for conducting the control room. Charge of computer section has been entrusted to Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Roohi Khan, who will be assisted by Directors Technology VN Gurjar, Sandeep Verma, Programmers Prawas Jain, Surendra Raghuvanshi, Revenue Inspector Anil Malviya and Programmer Hitendra Kaushik. Pankaj Prajapati and Vinay Deskhmukh will assist in display of counting results coming from districts on counting day. Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Anju Bhadauria will be in-charge of control room. Tahsildar Manish Shrivastava, Naib Tahsildar Sunita lal and Assistant Chief Electoral Officer RN Singh will assist in updation of results received from various districts. Responsibility of reports sent to Election Commission from time to time has been entrusted to Deputy Chief Electoral Officer SS Rawat. He will be assisted by Tahsildars Sanjeev Pandey, Rajiv Jain, Ismaeel Saifi, Ambuj Mishra, Sandeep Jain and Sujata Chincholkar.