COIMBATORE: EVMs used in the bypoll in Erode East constituency have been placed in the strong room at the Government Engineering College. District Election Officer and Erode Collector Raja Gopal Sunkara said four-tier security has been provided to the counting centre, and 183 police personnel will be on duty on a shift basis.
The room was sealed in the presence of general election observer Ajaykumar Gupta, candidates, and agents of candidates. As per instructions of the election commission, a total of 78 CCTV cameras have been fixed in the administrative block, and the room is monitored round the clock.
“CCTVs are monitoring the strong room door, pathway, and the college campus. We have issued identity cards to agents, and they will be monitoring the CCTV feed,” the collector said.
He has also allotted counting works to election officials for February 8, through the election commission website in the presence of the returning officer and Erode corporation commissioner HS Srikanth.
A total of 852 ballot units, 285 control units, and 308 VVPAT machines were used in election.
On Thursday, Naam Tamilar Katchi candidate MK Seetha Lakshmi issued a statement alleging that information related to split up votes of male, female and third gender’ and details of postal votes were not released.
“We suspect something is fishy, as despite media persons repeatedly requesting election officials to give details, officials did not give it till Thursday evening. Also, the officers did not take action regarding our complaints about impersonation of voters and fake votes,” said Seethalakshmi.
Condemning the officials for not giving information, Press and media persons are going to stage a protest by dharna protest by tieing black cloth in mouth at the district collectorate on Friday morning.