E-Paper
Civic polls 2023: Preparations for counting of votes near completion in U.P.’s Prayagraj
Counting of votes for the Prayagraj urban local body election-2023 will take place on May 13, with preparations near completion. Votes will be counted for the election of Prayagraj mayor and corporators of 100 wards of the Prayagraj Municipal Corporation, while votes polled for the candidates running for president and members of the eight nagar panchayats of the district will be counted in the respective nagar panchayat areas. A total of 738 government employees will be engaged for the counting of votes.
Preparations for counting of votes of urban local body election-2023, polling for which took place in Prayagraj in the first phase on May 4, are near completion. The counting will take place on May 13. The counting of votes cast for electing Prayagraj mayor and corporators of 100 wards of the Prayagraj Municipal Corporation will be done on Mundera Mandi campus from 7am onwards.
On the other hand, the votes polled for the candidates in fray for the post of president and members of the eight nagar panchayats of the district will be counted in the respective nagar panchayat areas, said district election officer/district magistrate Sanjay Kumar Khatri.
The district election officer said instructions had been given to complete the preparations at the counting sites on priority. He also said orders for installation of CCTV cameras at the counting venues and videography of the entire process too had been issued.
A control room will be set up at the office of the district economics statistical officer (DSTO) in the city from where the report of the votes counted in each round will be issued. This time the counting personnel will not be allowed to even carry personal water bottles, officials said.
A total of 738 government employees will be engaged for the counting of votes. While 56 tables will be set up for the candidates of the post of mayor and corporators, in the eight nagar panchayats the votes of candidates in the fray for the posts of presidents and members will be counted on 29 tables.
There will be four employees stationed on one table for the counting of municipal corporation votes. This will include one observer along with two employees performing counting and one employee bringing and carrying EVMs. At the same time, five employees will also be deployed on one table for the counting of votes of the eight nagar panchayats.
As per the plan, votes of municipal ward numbers 8 to 14 will be counted in 31 rounds, while in most wards the counting will take place between 23 and 28 rounds. There will be two rounds of counting on each table. There are nine wards in which two EVMs were installed for votes to be cast for candidates in race for the post of corporators.
Apart from this, 17 tables will also be set up for postal ballot in municipal areas, while eight tables will be set up separately for paper and postal ballots in nagar panchayat areas.
As part of the preparations, a meeting was held at the Sangam auditorium under DEO/DM Sanjay Kumar Khatri on Wednesday. In the meeting with the party representatives, the DEO informed who will have to stay where on the day of counting. Preparations for counting of votes were discussed with them.
The candidates and their representatives were informed that till now more than 1,600 passes had been issued to the agents and remaining passes will also be issued soon. At the time when the counting of the ward starts, the agents of the candidates of that ward only will be given admission so that too much crowd does not gather in Mandi Parishad at a time.
Meanwhile, government employees who would be shouldering the responsibility of vote counting have been imparted training. Training for these employees who failed to attend their original training sessions were given the training on Thursday at Bishop Johnson School.
Chief development officer Gaurav Kumar said an FIR will be lodged against those employees who failed to attend the training even on Thursday. In the training held on May 9, 50 employees were absent.
