Ahead of counting of votes for lok Sabha polls on May 16, Delhi’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vijay Dev on Monday visited two counting centres in the national Capital to review the arrangements.
Dev visited the strong rooms at NP Bengali Girls Senior Secondary School in Gole Market parliamentary seat and Integrated Institute of Technology in Dwarka Sector 9 in the afternoon. Counting in all seven lok Sabha seats will start at 8 am on May 16.“Postal ballots would be counted at first and after a gap of 30 minutes, the EVMs would be opened. Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) will oversee the postal ballot countings,” said Dev.
As per the Election Commission regulations, he added, there will 10 micro-observers deployed in each parliamentary seat and an Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) for each counting table.Dev was accompanied by the concerned Returning Officers during his inspection. He will visit the remaining centres in the following days respectively. Over 20,000 EVMs, that hold the fate of 150 candidates in lok Sabha polls, have been kept under heavy security in strong rooms at seven centres across the city.
“Two layers of security covers have been deployed for safety of the EVMs at all centres. While the paramilitary force and the Delhi Police forms an inner circle of security,” said Dev. Delhi registered its highest voter turnout of 65.09 per cent in the lok Sabha polls on April 10. A total number of 150 candidates are in the fray whose fate will be decided on May 16.