Assam polls: 8,500 officials to count votes on May 4

Around 8,500 officials will be engaged for the counting of votes on May 4 for 126 Assam Assembly constituencies that went to polls on April 9, the State’s Chief Electoral Officer Anurag Goel said on Wednesday.

Addressing a press conference, he said the Election Commission of India (ECI) is fully geared up to conduct the counting process smoothly and in a transparent manner.

“We will have 40 counting centres spread across the 35 districts of Assam. Most of the districts have a single centre comprising all the constituencies in their jurisdictions,” Goel said.

Kokrajhar, Tinsukia and Jorhat will have two counting centres each, while Nagaon will have three such facilities, he said.

“The ECI has deployed 126 counting observers, who are senior IAS officers and will come from outside the State to maintain the neutrality of the process. We will also have 2,348 micro-observers, who are Central Government employees,” Goel said.

For the main counting work, a total of 5,981 people, mostly from the State Government, will be engaged as counting officials, he said.

A record 85.96 per cent of Assam’s 2.51 crore electorate exercised their franchise across 126 seats on April 9. This marked the highest voter turnout in the State’s history, surpassing the previous high of 84.67 per cent recorded in 2016.

Regarding the security arrangements, Goel said 25 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) have been deployed across the State in the innermost cordon to guard the strong rooms, and they will also be stationed in the counting centres.

“In addition, we have 13 companies of State armed police stationed outside the strong rooms as the second cordon.

We can say it with full confidence that the strong rooms have not been compromised,” he said, refuting allegations of security lapses in the EVM storage facilities by some Opposition leaders.