The State election authority, the Chief Electoral Officer’s office, has instructed the officials drafted for counting duties to ensure that polling statements station-wise and round-wise are prepared after thoroughly cross-checking the manual and computer entries.
The returning officer concerned and the observer should be satisfied with the counting process before signing the register and the trend result should thereafter be displayed.
As the stage is being set for the counting of votes polled in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections, the CEO’s office circulated the dos and don’ts that should be followed during counting.
Accordingly, the returning officers have been asked not to sign the completed final result sheet immediately, but wait for a few minutes allowing the candidate or his agent to ask for recount of postal ballots or all or some rounds of votes polled on the EVMs. Candidates on their part can request for recount of postal ballot and/or polled EVMs of some or all the polling stations. The officials should ascertain how long it would take for the candidate/agent to apply for recounting in writing and if found reasonable, they should announce the exact time till which they would be waiting.
The returning officer should consider the grounds on which recounting was sought and decide the matter judiciously . The returning officer’s decision would be final in this regard.
The reasons for accepting or rejecting the request for recounting should be recorded and changes, if any, should be made in From 20 after careful recounting. With respect to counting of VVPAT machines’ slips, the returning officers should give due consideration to whether the total number of votes polled in that particular polling station is more or less than the margin of votes between the winning candidate and the one who was applying for the counting.
They should also consider whether the EVM had any defect and was replaced during the poll and whether there was any complaint made about the VVPAT not printing the paper slips.
The VVPAT slips should be opted in case the results are not displayed in the control unit, and officials should take care to ensure that the results from that control unit were not retrieved using auxiliary display unit or printer.
The units not showing results should be kept in the custody of the returning officer and the printed slips of the respective VVPAT should be counted after the completion of counting of votes in all other control units.