Khammam: All arrangements in place for LS election vote counting

Khammam : The counting of Lok Sabha votes will be done at Sri Chaitanya Engineering College at Ponnekal, Khammam Rural mandal, Khammam Lok Sabha Constituency Returning Officer, District Collector VP Gautham here on Wednesday.

He said that in 7 Assembly segments of the Lok Sabha constituency, one for the counting of postal ballots, a total of 8 halls have been set up, with 14 tables in each hall, as there are 355 polling centres in one Khammam Assembly segment, 18 tables have been set up there.

He said that the contesting candidates can appoint 117 agents and the details of the agents should be submitted in Form 18 by Thursday evening.

He said that the counting will begin on June 4 at 8 am and the EVM strongrooms will be opened at 5 am in the presence of representatives of political parties and contesting candidates. Contesting candidates and chief agents should reach the counting centre on time.

Counting agents should reach the counting centre by 6.30 am. Agents are required to provide 2 passport size photographs for passes. He said that mobile phones will not be allowed inside the counting center. After the polling on May 13, the EVM machines were moved to the strongrooms set up in Sri Chaitanya Engineering College and 3 levels of strong security were arranged. He said that representatives of political parties and candidates can visit the strongrooms.

Collector said that arrangements have been made for MLC by-elections of Warangal-Khammam-Nalgonda graduates. The MLC byelection polling will be held on May 27.

As many as 83,879 graduates have registered as voters in the district, 118 polling centers have been set up across the district and polling will be held from 8 am to 4 pm. Polling will be held through ballot papers and 129 ballot boxes, including reserve, have been arranged for the polling. 15 sectors have been formed and tahsildars have been appointed as sector officers.

The Collector added that a distribution centre will be set up at SR and BGNR Degree College on 26th of this month, after polling the ballot boxes will be sent to the strongroom in Nalgonda and counting will be done on June 5. There are 52 candidates in MLC by-election circle, 53 including nota, they have to cast their vote in order of priority, the Collector said infroming about the process of voting.

Additional Collector D Madhusudan Naik, Election Division Superintendent Rambabu, officials, contesting candidates, representatives of political parties and others participated.