SHILLONG: The declaration of results of the Lok Sabha elections for the two seats in the state on May 23 is likely to be delayed by about four hours above normal as counting of votes this time around will take longer.
Informing this here on Tuesday, Chief Electoral Officer FR Kharkongor said that the results will be delayed since VVPAT slips in as many as 300 polling stations-five in each assembly segment — will also have to be counted as per a recent Supreme Court order.
In addition, there were seven instances where polling officials had failed to clear the data of the mock poll — held before actual polling — which would necessitate counting of VVPATs.
Kharkongor said that counting of VVPAT slips is a meticulous exercise and each machine will take around 45-50 minutes, adding that the counting officials would also have to count the Electronically
Transmitted Postal Ballot System for service voters. There will be a maximum of eight rounds and a minimum of six rounds of counting.
Dedicated teams will count the VVPAT slips and the personnel engaged for the task will be drawn from specialised backgrounds like bank cashiers and from the treasury department.
Stating that the observers for the counting have reached the respective stations, Kharkongor added that there will be nine for Shillong and three for Tura. There will be altogether 702 micro observers.
As for Selsella assembly bypoll, which was held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections on April 11, Kharkongor informed that one dedicated counting hall has been earmarked and votes will be counted from the 50 polling stations. The result of the by-poll will be announced much earlier than the Lok Sabha elections.
A three-tier cordon has been set up at each and every counting centre drawn from five CAPF companies. The Inner most cordon will be manned by CAPF, the middle by the state armed police personnel and the outer by district armed police.
