Surveillance from third eye, CCTV cameras of counting room on
Dhamtari: Counting of votes under the Assembly Elections 2023 will start at 8 am on 03 December 2023 at Bhopal Rao Pawar Government Polytechnic College, Rudri. In view of this, Collector and District Election Officer Rituraj Raghuvanshi, while giving information about the preparations for counting of votes, said that all necessary preparations for counting of votes have been completed. For counting the votes from EVM machines, 14-14 counting tables have been installed for each assembly constituency. First of all, counting of postal ballots will start at 8 am. Assembly wise tables have been set up as follows for counting the postal ballot, which includes 2 tables each for Sihawa and Kurud and 3 tables for Dhamtari. Similarly, counting will be done in a total of 55 rounds, in which 259 polling stations of Sihawa assembly will be counted in 19 rounds, 237 polling stations of Kurud will be counted in 17 rounds and 257 polling stations of Dhamtari will be counted in 19 rounds.
District Election Officer Raghuvanshi also said that there will be arrangement for one counting agent of each candidate to sit outside the barricades near each counting table. They will not be allowed to move from one table to another. Only candidates and their election agents will be able to move from one table to another from outside the barricading. All the counting personnel have been well trained. The process of opening the strong room for counting of votes will be completed on December 3 at 8 am in the presence of observers, returning officers, assistant returning officers and candidates or their election agents. Candidates or their election agents will have entry facility through the main gate. Candidates and their election agents can remain present during the transportation of received postal ballot papers from the strong room established in the District Treasury to the counting venue under police custody. Candidates and their election agents can remain present during ETPBS scanning.
Under the counting of votes, important processes like the process of opening the strong room, EVM transportation from the strong room to the counting hall, presence of candidates or candidates’ agents, verification of paper slips of VVPAT, etc. will be videographed. Arrangements for shade and drinking water have been made outside the counting centre. Immediately after the last cycle of counting from EVM machines, 05-05 polling stations will be selected on random basis by the observer assembly wise and they will be counted in the booth designated for counting of VVPAT slips. During this period, only one representative will be allowed to be present on behalf of each candidate.
A three-tier security cordon has been put in place to prevent entry of unauthorized persons inside the counting centre. District police forces have been deployed in the first security circle, State Armed Police Forces have been deployed in the second circle and Central Armed Police Forces have been deployed in the third circle. A perimeter of 100 meters around the counting complex has been designated as “pedestrian zone”. Entry of any vehicle will be prohibited in this perimeter. No person will be allowed to cross the first circle of security without a photo admit card issued by the District Election Office for counting of votes.
Executive magistrates have been appointed to maintain law and order outside and inside the counting complex. No intoxicants like beedi, tobacco, gutkha, cigarette, lighter, pen, sharp objects etc. will be allowed inside the counting centre. No candidate or his agent will be allowed to enter the counting hall with calculator, pen or other electronic devices. For entry of counting agents into the counting centre, apart from wearing the badge given by the Returning Officer, they will also have to present an attested copy of the authorization letter provided in Format-18. If the appointment of counting agent is to be cancelled, then application in Form-19 will be submitted to the Returning Officer. Security personnel of the candidates or their agents will not be allowed to enter the counting hall.
