Votes to be counted in 16 centres in Kollam

The counting of votes for the local body elections in the district will commence at 8 a.m. on Saturday in 16 centres. Counting for the grama panchayats will take place in 11 block-level centres, four municipal-level centres for the respective municipalities while the centre for Kollam Corporation will be Thevalli Boys Higher Secondary School. The district panchayat’s postal ballots will be counted at the collectorate conference hall under the supervision of District Collector.

The counting of votes for the block and grama panchayats will take place at the block-level centres. The postal ballots for the grama and block panchayats will also be counted here. Following this, the votes from the voting machines will be counted. The strong room will be opened in the presence of the Returning Officer, Assistant Returning Officer, observers, candidates, and agents. From there, the machines for each ward will be taken to the counting hall for counting. The votes on each table will be counted in the presence of the candidate or the counting agents appointed by the candidate.

The counting supervisor will immediately record the result of each control unit and hand it over to the Returning Officer. Once the postal ballots and the votes from all booths in a ward have been completely counted, the Returning Officer of that respective level will declare the result. As each booth’s counting is completed, the vote status will be uploaded to ‘Trend’ software allowing the lead status and results to be known in real-time. Only the counting officials, officers authorised by the Election Commission, candidates, chief agents, and counting agents are permitted to enter the vote counting centre.