BHUBANESWAR: The State Election Commission (SEC) has made elaborate arrangements for counting of votes in the urban local bodies (ULB) elections on Saturday.SEC Secretary RN Sahu informed that process will commence at 8 am and continue till all votes are counted.Sharing details about the arrangements made, he said adequate manpower will be deployed to make the counting process smooth.
The SEC has made provision of 12 tables each for counting of votes polled for corporator seats and Mayor seat in the three municipal corporations of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur. Similarly, there will be five tables each for counting of votes for councillor and chairperson seats in municipalities and two tables each for counting of votes for councillor and chairperson seats in NACs. Each counting table will have a supervisor who would be helped by an assistant and a Group D employee. The counting will take place simultaneously for all the posts in the civic bodies.
However, votes of polling personnel who exercised their franchise through election duty certificate, will be counted first. Counting will be recorded through CCTV cameras.Sahu said the results will be declared ward-wise and the lead for mayor/chairperson posts would be announced after completion of each round of EVM counting.
Adequate police force will be deployed to maintain law and order during counting. “There will be two police cordons outside the counting hall and another layer of security where candidates and their agents will be entering,” he added.Commissionerate Police said three-tier security arrangement has been made for the counting of votes in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Jatni and Choudwar.