The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Tamil Nadu, Praveen Kumar, has announced the restrictions and measures to be followed during counting on May 16.
The entire process would be overseen by 58 Counting Observers for the 39 parliamentary constituencies in Tamil Nadu and one Counting Observer for the by-election in the Alandur Assembly constituency. Each counting table will have one Micro Observer, the CEO said.
The counting will begin at 8 am with the postal ballots, and a gap of half hour will be given before the commencement of the counting of votes registered on EVMs. Each candidate will be allowed to appoint a counting agent for each table involved in the process.
The entire process will be videographed, right from the opening of the strong rooms to the randomisation of the EVMs, counting, tabulation, declaration of the result, issue of Returning Certificate and the sealing of the EVMs after counting. The video will be preserved under the custody of the Returning Officer of the constituency. The tallying and display of votes in each round will be followed for the first time.