Arrangements in place for smooth counting of votes across Kerala: Chief electoral officer

The returning officer will give specific badges with name of candidate and the table number to the counting agents of political parties

Kerala’s chief electoral officer (CEO) Sanjay Kaul said on Monday that all arrangements are in place across 20 centres in the state for a smooth and transparent conduct of counting of votes in the Lok Sabha elections.

Kerala went to the polls in a single phase on April 26 with 71.26% of the 2.77 crore voters of the state exercising their franchise. (AFP)

“All arrangements have been made. Real-time data entry of the vote-counting process will be done through the ENCORE portal of the Election Commission through which public and the media can access the results. In last one week, we have been conducting trial runs and the last trial run was conducted on Friday successfully,” Kaul told reporters on Monday after visiting the counting centre set up at the Mar Ivanios College in Thiruvananthapuram.

“At 8 am, we will start counting the postal ballots followed by counting of votes from the EVMs at 8:30 am. The first trends will be made available by 9 am,” Kaul said, adding that three rounds of training have been given to all officers especially for the counting of the postal ballots.

Kerala went to the polls in a single phase on April 26 with 71.26% of the 2.77 crore voters of the state exercising their franchise.

The results will be available on the website of the Election Commission as well as the Voter Helpline app. Media centres have also been set up at all 20 centres in the state with digital signboards to display real-time information.

The office of the state CEO said in a statement that only counting supervisors, counting assistants, micro observers, election commission officials, observers, government officials on election duty, candidates and their election agents will have access to the counting centres on June 4. The returning officer will give specific badges with name of candidate and the table number to the counting agents of political parties.

There will be one hall for each of the Assembly segments at the counting centres with a maximum of 14 desks and there will be one counting supervisor for each desk. The supervisor will be a gazetted officer rank.

A total of 194 candidates are on the electoral field in the state’s 20 parliamentary constituencies. The principal contenders are from the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA). In the 2019 elections, the UDF romped home by winning 19 of the 20 seats, leaving the remaining seat to the LDF. The BJP, which has headed the central government for the past 10 years, has never won a Lok Sabha seat in the state’s history.

Exit polls by several agencies have put the UDF ahead once again, giving the coalition a range of 15-19 seats according to poll of polls, and predicting that the NDA will open its account in the state this time. The LDF, which enjoys a majority in the Kerala Assembly since 2016, has been predicted to have a weak showing in the polls. A health warning: exit polls have been wrong in the past and should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Kozhikode district collector Snehil Kumar Singh said special forces will be deployed in the parliamentary constituency of Vadakara as part of law and order measures and prohibitory orders under section 144 will be issued from Monday evening.

No celebrations are allowed in the constituency without permission from the district administration and there will be additional security in sensitive areas. The constituency witnessed a fierce campaign between LDF’s KK Shailaja and UDF’s Shafi Parambil and allegations of injecting communalism and launching attacks on social media.