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Counting of Votes at RPD College: Know the Counting process

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Now that the voting is over and the candidates are taking a breather, the citizens are busy in giving their opinions with reasons as to who could win the elections, from a small tea shop to the lavish one’s point of discussion hovers around the who will win.

Well, who will be our MP would be decided on 23-5-2019 and the entire counting process will be held at RPD College, Tilakwadi Belagavi.

Counting of votes is the last major step towards the culmination of the election process.

Persons allowed in counting hall:
i) counting supervisors and counting assistants;
ii) persons authorized by the Election Commission;
iii) public servants on duty in connection with the election;
iv) candidates, their election agents and counting agents.

Maximum 16 tables are put up in a counting hall
The counting will be done on the table arranged in rows. The tables in each row will be serially numbered. 

On each counting table, the seating arrangement for the counting agents shall be made having regard to the following categories or priority, namely:-
(i) candidates of National parties;
(ii) candidates of State parties;
(iii) candidates of State parties of other States who have been permitted to use their reserved symbols in the Constituency;
(iv) candidates of registered-unrecognized parties;
(v) independent candidates.

Every person inside the counting hall is required by law to maintain, and aid in maintaining, the secrecy of voting and should not communicate to any person any information calculated to violate such secrecy.

countingActual Counting process:

The counting of postal ballot papers will be taken up first

EVM’s received from the polling stations will be distributed to the various counting tables beginning with the EVM of polling station No.1 being distributed to table No.1 and so on.

Only one EVM will be opened at a time for the purpose of checking of identity marks. 

Power switch provided in the rear compartment of the control unit will be put to ‘ON’ position. The ‘ON’ lamp in the Display Section of the control unit will then glow green.
(ii) The paper seal over the ‘Result I’ Button provided beneath the upper aperture of the inner cover of Result Section will be pierced through.
(iii) The ‘Result I’ Button will then be pressed.
(iv) At the ‘Result I’ button being so pressed, the total number of votes recorded for each candidate at the polling station shall be displayed automatically in the Display Panels of the control unit.

There are 57 contesting candidates and the total number of votes polled at the polling station would be displayed serially one after another.

Due to this, there could be a little delay in the declaration of the winner.

As the votes secured by each candidate are displayed on the Display Panels of the control unit, the counting supervisor shall, as mentioned above, record the number of such votes separately in respect of each candidate in ‘Part II – Result of Counting’ of Form 17C.

The officer incharge of compiling the final result and preparing the Final Result Sheet in Form 20 shall make entries in that form showing the votes polled by each candidate polling stationwise, strictly in accordance with the entries made in ‘Part II – Result of Counting’ of Form 17C in respect of each polling station.

In case Equality of votes

If two candidates contesting for any seat happen to secure the highest number of votes and their votes are equal in number the result will be decided by lot.
Example- If in a constituency A, B, C and D are the contesting candidates and the total number of votes they have secured is as follows-
A – 12,703
B – 17,567
C – 17,567
D – 16,394
A lot will be drawn between B and C, who have each polled the highest number of votes and the person whose name is drawn will be elected.

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