the goan I network
MARGAO
As everyone braces for a grueling counting process on Thursday, which may go into extra time, probably late into the night, officials in the know now say the counting process could have been hastened a bit had the Election Commission and officials adopted a couple of pro-active steps on counting day.
Take for instance, counting of the Shiroda bypoll. Sources in the know said the Election Commission had initially held that the counting of Shiroda bypoll should be taken up simultaneously with the counting of votes of the Lok Sabha vis-Ã -vis the assembly segment in one hall. In effect, this implied that since the hall allotted for the counting of votes of the Shiroda segments had 12 tables, six tables each would be used for counting of votes of the bypoll and the Lok Sabha, when the local election officials had planned to hold counting of votes of the bypoll in a separate hall.
Interestingly, it was only on late Tuesday evening that the Election Commission dispatched a communique to the local election office, stating that the Shiroda bypoll counting can be taken up in a separate hall. Election officials in the know informed that it was too late to arrange a separate hall and separate staff for the counting of votes for the Shiroda bypoll, as a result both the votes of the bypoll and the Lok Sabha election of Shiroda will be counted together in one hall, which is expected to
delay the declaration of result pertaining to Shiroda.
Sources further informed that the Election Commission also reportedly turned down the proposal of the local election office to have more tables for counting beyond the stipulated 10 tables laid down by the EC. It is learnt that the multipurpose centre halls are spacious enough to accommodate even 16 tables, but the EC did not tap the advantage, which would have helped expedite the counting process.
Sources said the multipurpose counting complex has three halls which are big enough to accommodate 16 tables. Besides, there are two other halls, which would have accommodated 12 tables each, but the EC stuck to its stand not to go beyond 10 tables in each of the 10 halls.
Officials in the know further said that EC’s directives to count the VVPAT slips of five polling stations of each Assembly segments is expected to delay the counting process. Officials pointed out that simultaneous counting of VVPAT slips of all the five polling stations of each segments would have helped save time as the EC will now take up the slip counting one after another.
INTO EXTRA TIME
The EC dispatched a communique to the local election office only on late Tuesday evening, stating that the Shiroda bypoll counting can be taken up in a separate hall
Poll officials informed that it was too late to arrange a separate hall and separate staff for the counting of votes for the Shiroda bypoll, as a result both the votes of the bypoll and the LS election of Shiroda will be counted together in one hall, which is expected to delay the declaration of result pertaining to Shiroda
