Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh): The local administration has geared up for making all required preparations in view of the counting of votes of seven assembly constituencies of the district at Government Engineering College (UEC) here on December 3. Collector, SP along with other concerned officials visited the UEC on Wednesday and reviewed various preparations.
Before it, in the presence of collector and district returning officer Kumar Purushottam, ROs and AROs of all seven assembly constituencies were given detailed training on EVM, ETPBS (electronically transmitted post ballot system) and counting of postal ballots.
During the training, the collector instructed the officers present not to be hasty in any way during the counting of votes and not to make any decision on their own. Whatever decision has to be taken, it should be taken only as per the rules and instructions of the Election Commission of India (ECI).
Office-bearers of all political parties, candidates and their counting agents will soon be given detailed training regarding vote counting. Under the guidelines of the ECI, it is prohibited for anyone to take a mobile phone into the counting room. Only ROs and AROs of the respective assembly constituencies will be allowed to take mobile phones into the counting room.
The collector and district election officer have instructed all the ROs to inform the counting agents about the guidelines and rules of the Commission before counting in the counting room. The agents will be given training soon.
MANDATORY FOR COUNTING AGENTS
It will be mandatory for all counting agents, candidates and their election agents to bring photo identity cards to the counting venue. Without a photo identity card, entry will not be allowed at the counting venue. It will be mandatory for all counting agents to follow the Commission's instructions and safety rules.
PERSONS WHO CAN'T BE REPS
During the training, ROs and AROs were told that the following persons cannot be appointed as counting representatives of the candidates at the counting venue, such as sitting ministers of the Union or State government, Members of Parliament or Members of the State Assembly, mayors of Municipal Corporations, presidents of Municipal bodies/Zilla Parishad/Panchayat Union, chairman and members of Central undertakings/State undertakings, government bodies/corporations, persons receiving any kind of honorarium from the government or working part-time in any government/government-aided institution, people working and receiving grants from government institutions, paramedical/health workers, fair price shop dealers and Anganwadi workers and government servants. No person who has been provided security cover by the State or Union governments shall be appointed as an election agent or counting agent of a candidate, even if he surrenders or waives his security and such persons cannot enter the counting hall with or without their security personnel.
POSTAL BALLOTS TO BE COUNTED FIRST
Postal ballots will be counted first. After this, the actual counting of EVM votes will begin. A total of 9,988 voters had voted through postal ballot in the district. In this, 7,813 polling staff and 1,722 home voters (80+ and disabled) and 453 voters from other districts had voted through postal ballot.
14 TABLES IN EACH COUNTING ROOM
One counting room has been designated for each assembly. There will be 14 tables in each counting room. There will be three persons at one table, one enumeration supervisor, one enumeration assistant and one micro observer. There will be a counting micro-observer at each counting table. Micro observers will be responsible for the accuracy of the vote-counting process for their table. Micro observers will record on their tables the details of votes being counted in each round displayed by the EVMs. The counting of votes will be conducted continuously. Only after the completion of one round of counting, the EVMs will be brought to the counting room for the next phase of counting. The entire counting process will be videographed. During the entire counting process, candidates will be able to observe their election agents and counting agents.
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