After polling ended at 7 p.m. Tuesday, 6,885 electronic voting machines, 5,316 control units and 5,894 voter verifiable paper audit trail machines from the 4,427 polling booths reached the constituency-wise strong rooms established at the counting centre in Government College of Technology.
Sources said while machines from polling booths within the city were taken first to the strong rooms, those from the city’s periphery followed and the ones to reach the strong rooms last were those from Valparai. There, the presiding officers handed over the machines to the officers in-charge of the strong rooms and left after completing the paper work. And, the entire process ended by around 8 a.m. Wednesday. Thereafter, security personnel took over the security of the strongrooms and the counting centre, where the machines would remain till May 2, the counting day.
This time, given the increase in number of booths and electronic voting machines, the administration chose to store them on racks.
Aside from the security personnel, the sources said agents of contestants were also at the Government College of Technology, where they would remain till the counting date.
Kamal Haasan, Makkal Needhi Maiam candidate for Coimbatore South Assembly constituency visited the counting centre to have a look at the arrangements made. While exiting the premises, Mr. Haasan reportedly tried to assault a journalist, who tried to capture him leaving the place on his mobile phone.
In the process, the phone reportedly fell on the ground. DMK candidate for Singanallur N. Karthik and BJP candidate for Coimbatore South Vanathi Srinivasan have condemned the incident and said it was unfortunate.
A three-tier security has been arranged for the strong room. According to the police, more than 300 personnel from the local police, Tamil Nadu Special Police, Armed Reserve and Central armed paramilitary forces have been deployed at the place. In addition, a mini control room has been set up at GCT. A total of 137 surveillance cameras have also been installed for the security cover. City Police Commissioner S. Davidson Devasirvatham and District (Rural) Superintendent of Police S. Selvanagarathinam visited the place and reviewed the arrangements.
In Tiruppur, EVMs and the voter verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines were transported from the 3,343 polling stations in eight Assembly constituencies to the counting centre.
A press release said that the EVMs comprising control units and ballot units along with the VVPATs were stored in eight different strong rooms (one for each Assembly constituency) at the counting centre in L.R.G Government Arts College for Women on Palladam Road, following which the rooms were sealed.
The process was done in the presence of District Election Officer and Collector K. Vijayakarthikeyan, General Observers Ravi Shankar Prasath (Dharapuram (Reserved) and Kangeyam), Chandra Prakash Verma (Avinashi (Reserved)), Umanandha Doley (Tiruppur North), Mashir Alam (Tiruppur South and Palladam) and Kapil Meena (Udumalpet and Madathukulam) and representatives from recognised political parties.
Three-tier security comprising around 250 paramilitary personnel from Border Security Force, nearly 100 personnel from Tamil Nadu Special Police and 175 personnel from Tiruppur City Police will be deployed at the counting centre, police sources said. Around 200 CCTV cameras and four watchtowers were set up within the premises of the counting centre, the sources added.
