CEO of Madhya Pradesh has here on Tuesday indicated that matching VVPAT slips with EVM data would delay the results and first result would be out by 10 on May 23.
While talking to media persons here, about the counting preparations, Chief Electoral Officer of Madhya Pradesh VL Kantha Rao claimed Indore could be the last in terms of announcement of results.
The counting shall start at 8am with the counting of postal ballots on May 23, said the CEO.
However, with the mandatory matching of slips of five VVPATs in every assembly seat with the votes polled in corresponding EVMs, the first result is only expected to be out by 10pm on May 23, said Rao claiming Indore could be the last to have its result with 29 rounds of polling scheduled in the parliament constituency.
Bhopal’s results could also be delayed as there are 30 candidates in the lok sabha seat while Indore’s result could be as late as May 24 morning.
In assembly polls as well, the results were delayed in a constituency in Bhind and at Narela in Bhopal as there were large number of candidates there who were to be given counting certificates after every round of counting.
“Around 1,000 pages of paper were used in Narela,” revealed the officer on expected delays.
The process of counting of votes would be undertaken by a civil workforce of 15,000 under the watchful eyes of 9,000 armed personnel.
On being asked about the arrest of Chhindwara assembly poll candidate Bunty Sahu and his men ahead of counting, the CEO MP replied the commission normally doesn’t take cognizance of such police action during elections but the EC did take note of this matter as a complaint was received over the arrest.
As this was a bailable offence where the arrested men have been bailed out, Rao said they were free to be appointed as poll agents.
As the voting saw a surge of 9.5% in Madhya Pradesh in 2019, in a heartening development, 12% more women voters exercised their franchise this year than 2014.
In all 71.10 % voters turned out at polling booths for lok sabha polls in the state in 2019.
As against 56.52% women who exercised their franchise in year 2014, a total of 68.46 female voters turned up at polling booths in 2019 registering a jump of around 12%, said Rao.
The CEO MP further added the percentage of male voters was 73.54 in 2019 as against 66.05% men who had voted their choices in 2014 in the central Indian state. The overall poll percentage increased by 9.5% in 2019 as compared to 2014 when only 61.57% had turned up at polling booths.
With over 2.21 lakh polling machines being used in the polling in 2019, only 3436 had to be replaced i.e. replacements being only 1.5% of the total machines. “Out of these, only 0.5% machines were replaced when the polling was underway and rest of them were replaced at the time of mock polls at polling booths.”
Re-polling was only held at a polling booth each in Sidhi and Shivpurkalan, added the polling officer.============
