Elaborate Arrangements Being Made for Smooth Conduct of Counting of Votes; Counting to begin at 8 AM on May 23: RO

Port Blair, May 13: In connection with the counting process of Parliamentary Election-2019 slated for May 23, a training for AROs and officials involved in counting process was held in the conference hall of DBRAIT here today. Initiating the training, the Returning Officer, A&N Islands Parliamentary Constituency, Shri Udit Prakash Rai, through a power point presentation elaborated upon the overall counting process and also covered topics such as security & other arrangements in and around the counting centre and the duties & responsibilities of the AROs and officials involved in counting duty on the day counting of votes i.e May 23, 2019, to be held at JNRM.

The RO stated that counting of votes will be taken up in two halls for which 28 tables will be set up.  Each hall will have 14 tables and counting is expected to be completed in 15 rounds. Two Observers, one each in both the counting halls will be present on the Day of counting. The counting will begin at 8 am with the counting of postal ballots first which will be followed by counting of votes polled in EVMs.

Results of each round will be first uploaded in ‘Suvidha App’ and thereafter it will be announced through loud speakers at the earmarked places at RGT Road, Marina Park and South Point. Results of each round will also be displayed on the screens to be put up at Netaji Stadium and Counting Centre at JNRM. The results will be intimated to the media persons covering the counting process at the Media Center established in the Counting Centre JNRM through the Dy. Directors of IP&T who have been assigned duties to co-ordinate media persons. As per the instructions of the ECI, slips of five VVPAT machines will also be counted. Training programme for Counting Supervisors and Counting Assistants for handling Postal Ballots, EVMs, VVPAT for smooth counting of votes will be held on May 17, 18 and 19, 2019. Training for Micro Observers will be held on May 21 to inform them about their duties and responsibilities on the day of counting, the RO added.

The SDM, Shri Mukesh Rajora gave hands on training on the procedures to be followed while counting of votes in EVMs and VVPAT.

The Technical Director NIC, Shri Gautam Gupta enlightened the officials about compilation of round wise results & communication and uploading the results through ‘Suvidha App’. 

A hand book about counting of votes and a booklet regarding the overall counting process was also provided to the officials present in today’s training programme.