3-tier security for counting votes at 7 centres across city

Nearly 7,000 officials will count votes in Delhi on Tuesday at seven centres with three-layer security. Each centre has 1,000 personnel in 10 halls.

Nearly 7,000 officials will be engaged in counting of votes at seven centres spread across the Capital on Tuesday and the exercise will begin at 8am amid three-layer security at the venues. Almost all arrangements are in place for the counting exercise across the seven Lok Sabha constituencies, said chief electoral officer of Delhi P Krishnamurthy.

Polling officials sealing an EVM after the sixth phase of voting for in New Delhi on May 25. (Raj K Raj/HT Photo)

The centres are located at at SKV Bharat Nagar for Chandni Chowk, at ITI Nand Nagri for North East Delhi, at CWG Village Sports Complex for East Delhi, at Atal Adarsh Bengali Balika School, Gole Market, for New Delhi, at Delhi Technical University, Shahbad Daulatpur, for North West Delhi, at NSUT, Sector 3, Dwarka for West Delhi and at Jija Bai ITI for Women, Sirifort, for South Delhi.

“At each of the seven counting centres, nearly 1,000 personnel will be involved in the exercise. Each centre is divided into 10 separate halls, where votes from each of the 10 assembly constituencies will be counted. Each of the seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi is divided into 10 assembly constituencies. In each hall, there will be seven to 14 tables, the number of which will depend on the number of voters in the parliamentary constituencies. Each table will be manned by a counting supervisor, a counting assistant, representatives of the candidates and a peon. The counting of votes at the centres will be supervised by returning officers and assistant returning officers. The postal ballots will be taken up for counting at 8am and the votes polled in the EVMs from 8.30am,” a poll panel official said on condition of anonymity.

The official added that the EVMs will be brought from the strongroom for each round of counting according to the rules, which ensures complete transparency of the process. “Depending on the number of voters in the constituencies, the counting may span over 20 to 28 rounds,” said the official.

A second poll panel official said that the counting centres will have a three-layer security system. “The outer limits will be manned by the Delhi Police, the middle layer will be under by the reserved battalions of the Delhi Police and the internal layer will be manned by the security personnel. “Adequate number of security personnel will be deployed for the exercise,” said the official.

All the seven Lok Sabha constituencies of Delhi voted on May 25 during the sixth phase. Around 58.7% of roughly 15.2 million electors voted to decide the fate of 162 candidates.

This time, the contest is bipolar for the first time in 15 years in the Capital. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) fought from four seats – New Delhi (Somnath Bharti), South Delhi (Sahiram Pahalwan), East Delhi (Kuldeep Kumar) and West Delhi (Mahabal Mishra) – and the Congress fielded its candidates in three seats – Chandni Chowk (JP Aggarwal), North East Delhi (Kanhaiya Kumar) and North West Delhi (Udit Raj). They face an uphill battle against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won 57% of the vote in 2019 and held a 16 percentage point advantage over the combined vote shares of the AAP and Congress.

All the EVMs used for voting in the Capital have been stored in the seven strongrooms created in the different Lok Sabha constituencies where poll panel officials and security officials are monitoring them 24x7. After the voting was over across 13,641 polling stations in the city, the EVMs were sealed and transported to the strongrooms by the respective polling personnel. After the EVMs were stored, the strongrooms were sealed in the presence of representatives of candidates, poll panel officials and the entire process was videographed as per rules. The postal ballots and votes polled under the home-voting facility have also been stored in the strongrooms.