MARGAO
Perhaps for the first time, counting of votes of all the 21 Assembly constituencies of South Goa will be taken up simultaneously at Vidya Vikas Mandal’s educational complex on March 10.
The newly-built building block in the VVM’s complex has come in handy for the district election authorities to take up simultaneous counting of votes of all the 21 Assembly constituencies at one go, tentatively at 9 am.
Election officials informed that the 21 rooms in the new building in the VVM’s complex will be designated as counting halls for the Assembly constituencies.
Take note, the rooms are spacious enough to accommodate as many tables, but the Covid SOPs may, however, result in more rounds of counting this time round.
“Instead of having 14 tables in a hall, it has been tentatively decided to instead put up only seven to maintain the Covid SOP”, the official informed.
Sources said the number of counting rounds of each constituency would depend on the polling in the particular constituency, with an official saying it could just have six rounds of counting in some constituencies, while counting of votes of Canacona constituency may have nine rounds, which had recorded around 28,000 polling in the February 14 polls.
A senior election officer told The Goan that this is perhaps the first time that people of South Goa will get the trends of all the 21 Assembly constituencies at one time.
“In the past, the election authorities used to take up for counting around five Assembly constituencies, one each from every taluka from the district. The counting process used to go right up to the evening session. This was basically because of a paucity of space at the counting centres”, the official said, exuding confidence that the counting process may be over by noon if everything goes well.
In fact, the official recalled that candidates and their counting agents were called at the counting centres in the past by allocating them fixed time. “The election authorities have decided to have the counting at the Vidya Vikas Mandal’s educational complex by utilizing a new and spacious building”, he added.
While the authorities are putting the counting system in place ahead of the counting on March 10, officials in the know say the postal ballots will be taken up for counting at 8 am, following the opening of the Electronic Voting Machines.
Sources said the election officials led by the district election officer, Ruchika Katyal, IAS, Additional District Collectors -- Sanjit Rodrigues and Surendra Naik -- and their election teams are presently on the job to put an effective counting system in place at the centre.
The EVMs of all the 21 Assembly constituencies of South Goa are all housed in the strong rooms at the VVM’s educational building. A three-tier security cover is thrown in and around the counting centre, besides 56 CCTV surveillance cameras to man the centre. A fire brigade is stationed at the VVM complex as a precautionary measure.
