Remember, P Chidambaram's election vote counting ghotala has still NOT been decided by Madras HC.
Kalyanaraman
| Wednesday , May 18 , 2016 |
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160518/jsp/frontpage/story_86260.jsp#.Vzu4lZF97IU
Kalyanaraman
| Wednesday , May 18 , 2016 |
Those who make every vote count |
| Josef Stalin may or may not have said “the people who cast the votes don’t decide an election, the people who count the votes do”. But political fortunes will be made and wrecked in 394 halls spread over 90 centres in Bengal from 8am on Thursday when the votes polled in the Assembly elections will be counted. By noon or soon after, the picture should be clear. In the intervening hours, the 90 counting centres will be the cynosure of countless eyes in Bengal and beyond. The following are the nuts and bolts of the counting process:   • No vehicle movement allowed within the 100-metre periphery • Section 144, which prevents the assembly of five or more persons, to be in force within the 100-metre periphery. Shops, offices, businesses or any other establishment where five or more persons can gather have to remain shut • No cellphones — except those of observers — inside the counting hall • No exit or re-entry of counting personnel from or to the counting centre during the process COUNTING PROCESS • At 7.45am, the counting personnel will be given the postal ballots • At 8am, the counting will begin • At 8.30am, if the counting of the postal ballots is not over, it will be suspended and attention will turn to the electronic voting machines • At the end of the 11th round, the remaining postal ballots, if any, will be counted • When the postal ballots are done with, the counting of the votes in the machines will resume COUNTING TABLE • Each counting table will have a counting supervisor, an assistant and a micro observer • Counting personnel — chosen from the state government, the central government and public sector units — are allotted following a three-step randomisation Step 1: The personnel are earmarked for the counting centres a week before and sent for training Step 2: They are allotted to Assembly constituencies 24 hours before the counting Step 3: On the morning of the counting day, their counting tables are allotted at 5am OBSERVERS • A counting observer will monitor each of the 294 Assembly constituencies and report to the commission • After every round of counting, the observer picks two EVMs at random and revalidates the results • The observers will run several checks at the end of each round, before reporting it to the commission through a software and over phone, after which they will make a public announcement at the media centre inside the counting centre • At the end of counting, the observers will tally the numbers thrice and check with the personnel at each table before instructing the returning officer to announce the results The whole process inside the halls will be videographed. Compiled by Meghdeep Bhattacharyya |