Bhubaneswar: Amid tight security, counting of votes polled in the elections for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats started in all 70 centres across the State at 8 AM.
The voting for 21 Parliamentary constituency seats and 147 Assembly constituency seats was held in four phases on May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1, 2024.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nikunja Bihari Dhal said about 2.5 crore votes will be counted for both the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats from 64,000 control units. Postal ballots would be counted first, followed by the counting of EVM votes.
More than 67,000 ballot units along with 1.47 lakh postal ballots for Lok Sabha elections and 1.46 lakh for assembly elections will be counted at the 70 centres.
The 2024 elections saw a rise in the percentage of voter turnout compared to the 2019 General Elections. In the 2019 elections, about 73.09 percent of voters had exercised their franchise, while in the 2024 elections, the voter turnout was 74.44 percent.
The votes polled in EVMs will be counted in 3589 tables. There are 1790 counting tables for Parliamentary constituencies and 1799 for assembly constituencies.
Eight assembly constituencies where the number of rounds would be more than 30 while the votes will be counted less than 30 rounds in the remaining 139 assembly segments. The eight assembly constituencies where the counting process may take more time, those are—Rairangpur, Saraskana, Aul, Chitrakunda, Patkura, Bissamcuttack, Loisingha and Mohana, Dhal said.
In view of the heatwave condition, all the counting halls have been made air conditioner and power generators will be used in case of power failure. Besides, CCTVs installed, dedicated fire fighting teams deployed in the counting centres. Besides, sufficient drinking water, ORS, and other arrangements have been made in the counting centres.
One counting supervisor, a counting assistant and a micro observer will be deployed for every EVM counting table. In total, 5777 counting supervisors, 5233 counting assistants, and 5396 micro observers have been appointed for the counting.
The Election Commission has appointed 124 special observers to supervise the counting.
Security has been tightened for the counting process. A total of 60 companies of central armed police force (CAPF) along with Odisha armed police force have been deployed in the counting centres while another 89 companies of CAPF will be deployed to look after law and order situation in post-result announcement period.