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Bihar Assembly Election 2020: Increased poll booths delays vote counting
Given the extraordinary circumstances caused by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, there was an increase in the number of booths from where votes were to be counted. In 2015, counting took place at 38 locations.
Counting of votes in the Bihar assembly polls turned out to be a slow process — about 42% votes were counted by 4pm on Tuesday and nearly 27 million out of the 41.1 million votes polled in the state were counted by 5.30pm, according to Election Commission of India officials.
Given the extraordinary circumstances caused by the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, there was an increase in the number of booths from where votes were to be counted. In 2015, counting took place at 38 locations.
“In all assembly constituencies, counting is happening at invariably 14 tables, across large halls,” said deputy electio n commissioner Chandra Bhushan, in charge of Bihar. “The number of rounds of counting range from 19 at the least to 51 at the most. The average number of rounds per constituency will be around 35. We hope to finish the counting as per procedure by late tonight.”
“The final data for postal ballots will only be available at the RO level,” said Chandra Bhushan. He added that since the number of rounds of counting would vary from constituency to constituency, exact data could not be provided.
The commission had set up nearly 63% more polling booths, up from 65,000 in 2015 to 106,000 in 2020, to meet Covid-19 guidelines.
“Correspondingly, the number of EVMs as also increased to 106,000.”
Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Manoj Jha said that in multiple seats, counting could go up to 30 to 35 rounds, which left scope for a comeback, particularly with several constituencies being decided by wafer-thin margins.
Deputy election commissioner Ashish Kundra said nearly 160,000 ballots were dispatched for service voters, of which over 50,000 were received by the returning officers.
Deputy election commissioner Sudeep Jain said the EVMs (electronic voting machines) were absolutely robust, shooting down any insinuations about the possibility of tampering with the count.
The delay in counting led to members of the opposition Mahagathbandhan, including Manoj Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Randeep Singh Surjewala of the Congress, alleging irregularities in the the counting process in seats with tight margins.
