Preparations for the counting of votes in Rajasthan Assembly elections are in the final stages. After the exit poll is released, the Election Commission will now count the votes on December 3. Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta has organized a meeting on Thursday regarding vote counting. Gupta said that proper arrangements have been ensured at the counting centres. He said that on December 3, the counting of votes will start through postal ballot and EVM from 8:30 am at all the centres.
Counting of votes and close monitoring in all assembly constituencies
1121 AROs have been put on duty for counting votes at 36 centres in 199 assembly seats of Rajasthan. Counting of votes will be done at two centres each in Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Nagaur and one centre each in the remaining 30 electoral districts. Gupta said that 2524 tables have been installed at the counting centres to count the votes received in EVMs at 51890 polling centres. In these, the counting of votes will be completed in a total of 4245 rounds. The counting of votes for the Shiv Assembly constituency will continue for a maximum of 41 rounds, while the counting of votes for Ajmer South will be completed in only 14 rounds.
Security arrangements will remain intact
The Chief Electoral Officer said that tight security arrangements have been made at the counting site and its surrounding areas. There will be extensive deployment of the Central Police Force and RAAC as part of security arrangements during the counting process. Three-tier security arrangements have been made to enter the counting venue so that there is no disturbance of any kind at the counting venue.
The Chief Electoral Officer said that 40 companies of Central Police Forces and 36 companies of RAC will be deployed at the counting centres for the security of EVMs. 99 companies of RAAC will be deployed in various districts to maintain law and order.
A postal ballot will also be used
A total of 4 lakh 36 thousand 664 voters used postal ballot in the counting of votes. Out of which, 49 thousand 365 voters are above 80 years of age, 11 thousand 656 are from the disabled category, 4 thousand 427 are from essential services and 3 lakh 71 thousand 166 voters are engaged in the voting process. Gupta has stated that the Election Commission’s instructions will be followed to ensure that the results are declared accurately and on time, without any errors or delays. To ensure complete fairness in the vote-counting process, the ‘Mandatory Verification’ method used by the Election Commission of India will be implemented. After the votes are counted, 5 VVPATs will be selected by lottery from each assembly’s polling stations, and their slips will be counted. The votes from EVMs will then be matched with those from the VVPATs.
