All set for vote counting at Nova, Nimra colleges

Vijayawada: NTR district collector S Dilli Rao said all arrangements have been made for the counting of votes for seven Assembly constituencies and Vijayawada Lok Sabha constituency at two engineering colleges in Ibrahimpatnam on Tuesday.

He said the elections were held on May 13 and counting of votes will be held on June 4. The counting of votes of Assembly segments of Tiruvuru, Vijayawada West, Vijayawada Central and Nandigama will be held at Nova Engineering College.

Counting of votes of Vijayawada East, Mylavaram and Jaggaiahpet segments will be held at Nimra Engineering College. Speaking to media at the Collectorate here on Sunday, he said separate arrangements were made for counting of postal ballot votes. He said 14 tables were arranged for each Assembly constituency and 98 tables were set up for seven assembly segments.

He said counting of votes will begin at 8 am and it will take three hours for counting of each round of postal ballot votes. He said two rounds of postal ballot votes will be held. He hoped the counting of votes will be completed by 5 pm or 6 pm.

He said all arrangements were made for swift counting of votes and furnishing details of the counting to the media.

Referring to parking of vehicles, he said parking facilities provided on the national highway for the buses and other vehicles. He said the district administration will arrange buses from IGMC stadium to the counting centres at Nimra College and Nova College. He said separate entry points are arranged at the counting centres for contested candidates, election agents and media representatives. Collector said a special mobile collection point was arranged for the mobile phones of counting staff and agents. Dilli Rao said high quality training was given to the counting supervisors, counting assistants, micro-observers and other staff to avoid confusion in the counting. He said Central Armed Reserve Force will be deployed at the counting centres to prevent any untoward incident and CC cameras are installed for the surveillance.

Joint Collector P Sampath Kumar said the EC has already conducted meetings with the representatives of the political parties and explained the counting procedure.