PANAJI
Elaborate arrangements are in place at the Polytechnic Campus in Altinho-Panaji, as officials and security have been geared up for the counting of votes for all constituencies in North Goa on Thursday.
While Goa Police will be guard outside the campus, a strong force from the CRPF will be deployed inside the campus.
District Election Officer North Ajit Roy informed reporters that counting will start at 8 am while his team of around 800 persons, including 573 counting staff and workers, will start work at 5.30 am for prior preparations ahead of the counting of votes.
“Counting will take place in 19 rooms on two floors of the polytechnic. While eight rooms are on the ground floor, 11 rooms are on the top floor,” said Roy.
He informed that the counting staff have been sufficiently trained and they will be supervised by observers deputed by the Election Commission.
“There are three rounds of randomisation of these counting officers before counting. First round of randomisation has already been done. The second round will be done by the observers on Wednesday and third and final randomisation will be done on March 10,” said Roy.
“In every room, there will be 4-7 tables for counting. For each constituency, there will be a maximum 11 rounds of counting and each round is roughly expected to take 20-30 minutes.”
“All candidates will have the right to appoint one counting agent. Only the candidate and the counting agent will be allowed inside the counting hall. All counting agents must have a full vaccination certificate or a RT-PCR negative test of not more than 72 hours,” said Roy.
He informed that mobile phones would not be permitted at the counting centres and only the returning officer and observers will be allowed to use mobiles.
“Results of counting will be declared every one hour through a public announcement system and also displayed on the screen in the press gallery.”
“There are around 9,000-10,000 postal ballots issued in North Goa and so, the counting process may be delayed due to these postal ballots,” Roy added.
