As December 8 — the decision day — inches close, preparations for counting of votes gear up. Counting officers will reach the centre at Government Engineering College (GEC), Sejbahar at 6 am. For each of the seven Assemblies in Raipur district, 14 tables will be set up for the counting at Government Engineering College.
The process would begin with counting of postal ballots. After 15 minutes, votes in EVM would be counted with the help of control unit.
According to the guidelines of the central observer, each counting table will have a micro observer. During conducting a training session for the counting officers, additional collector Mahadev Kanwre, joint collector Anand Masih and master trainer Alok Sharma said every table will have a set team of officers.
One counting observer, a counting assistant and one assistant to fetch EVM from the control unit will be present at every table. In addition to this, a central government employee will be deployed as an additional observer.
According to the sources, micro observers have been assigned with the duty of complete assessment of the counting process. They must fill out a prescribed proforma and submit it to the central observer. Officers of election duty present on the spot will be in-charge of the seal numbers of the EVMs and will report to counting observer and counting agent.
Before the counting of EVM votes is started, seal of the result section is pressed and broken. Subsequently, various options start to appear on the screen. Details are sough under every head and are noted in the prescribed proforma. The document is then signed by the observer and the officers on election duty before being submitted to assistant returning officer. Counting of the votes cast in auxiliary polling centres are done along with rest of the votes.
Out of the 14 tables, central observer will order recounting of votes from any two tables through the micro observer. Only when the counting on all 14 tables is complete, counting of the second phase votes will begin.