A day before the counting of votes for the 16th lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission (EC) has scheduled to hold a ‘mock trial’ of counting for the officials and employees deployed to counting duty on Thursday in the premises of the Government Engineering College, Sejbahar for Raipur lok Sabha (lS) seat.
The counting of votes for 16th lS polls will commence in the country including Chhattisgarh on Friday. According to District Collector and Returning Officer Thakur Ram Singh, more than 500 officials and employees were deputed to hold the counting of votes in a free and fair manner in the seat consisting of seven assembly segments.
The counting, he said, would be done under the monitoring of CCTV cameras installed in the venue besides other observers of the EC and the candidates of respective political parties and their agents.
The EC has also issued photo identity cards to all those who have been deployed for counting duty and candidate’s agents and other observers. The randomization of the counting officials and employees, he said would be done at 5 am on Friday and accordingly they would be assigned jobs at allotted places .
The counting officially starts at 8 am with postal ballot votes and from 8.30 am the votes in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would be counted. The Returning Officer said besides officials, the candidates and their counting agents also will have to be present at the venue before 7 am.