Deputy Election Commissioner of the Election Commission of India Ajay Bhadoo and Chief Electoral Officer Madhya Pradesh, Anupam Rajan held video conferencing with all the Collectors, District Election Officers and Superintendents of Police of the state on Thursday. In the meeting, elaborate preparations and security arrangements for the counting of votes to be held on December 3 were discussed in detail and necessary guidelines were given.
Deputy Election Commissioner Bhadoo and Chief Electoral Officer Rajan said that only authorised persons holding passes issued by the Election Commission of India will be able to enter the counting centre. No unauthorised or unwanted person will be allowed to enter the counting venue. Carrying mobile phones and calculators to the counting centre will be prohibited, only the counting personnel deployed for counting of votes will be able to use the calculators. They told all the district election officers that all the arrangements in the counting centres should be systematic and organised as per the guidelines issued by the Election Commission of India. Keep giving all the information related to elections to observers, political parties, candidates, media and general public, so that any kind of false or misleading information is not disseminated. There should not be any kind of lack of communication.
The Deputy Election Commissioner held one-to-one discussions with all the 52 Collectors and District Election Officers and Superintendents of Police of the state and reviewed in sequence the preparations made for counting of votes in the districts.
He said that all the norms and protocols should be strictly followed in the entire process of counting postal ballots. Counting of votes recorded in EVMs should be started only after half an hour of starting the counting of postal ballots. Train counting workers and micro observers to count the votes recorded in EVMs. There should be no lack of security at the counting venue at any level. There should be adequate arrangements for CCTV cameras in the counting centres. All District Election Officers should ensure that there is complete fairness and transparency in the entire vote counting process from randomization on the day of counting till distribution of election certificates to the winning candidates. There should be no doubt or confusion over the correctness of the vote counting process.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer Rajesh Kumar Kaul, Joint Chief Electoral Officer Rakesh Singh, Basant Kurre, Ruchika Chouhan, Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Pramod Kumar Shukla and Surbhi Tiwari were present in the meeting.