The counting of votes polled in the April 6 Assembly elections will begin at 8 a.m. on Sunday at 633 counting halls across 114 centres. The entire exercise would be carried out in accordance with COVID-19 protocols, election officials said.
The counting of postal ballots will start at 8 a.m. By 8.30 a.m., the counting of votes polled in the electronic voting machines (EVM) will begin. The initial trends are expected by 10 a.m. The strong rooms where the EVMs were stored will be opened at 6 a.m. in the presence of observers appointed by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The ECI has made arrangements for the dissemination of trends and results via the commission's website https://results.eci.gov.in. Updates will be provided on the round-wise trends and results of each constituency. The public can access trends and results through the 'Voter helpline' mobile app of the commission which can be downloaded on Google Play store.
Kerala had registered a voter turnout of 74.06%. Of the total electorate of 2,74,46,039, 2,03,27,893 had exercised their franchise.
The counting process is expected to take more time than usual due to the large number of postal ballots this year. Consequently, the official declaration of the results is also likely to be slightly delayed. The ECI had distributed a total of 5,84,238 postal ballots to voter categories, including 80-plus voters, persons with disabilities, COVID-19 patients, people employed in essential services and polling officials.
Of the 633 counting halls, 527 will be dedicated to the counting of EVM votes. The number of counting tables in each hall has been restricted to seven, given the COVID-19 situation. Postal ballots will be counted in 106 halls. The ECI has deputed 24,709 officials, including reserve staff, for the counting duty.
Victory celebrations have been prohibited. The police and the District Collectors have been directed to prevent social and political meetings, gatherings and parades till May 4.
