Madurai
The last minute arrangements were under way in full swing at the four counting centres for the State Assembly elections across the district on Saturday.
The counting of votes polled in the 10 assembly constituencies of the district will take place on Sunday.
The counting centre for Madurai North, Madurai South, Madurai Central and Madurai West constituencies will be Madurai Medical College. For Melur and Madurai East constituencies, Agricultural College and Research Institute will be the counting centre.
Tamil Nadu Government Polytechnic College will be the counting centre for Tirupparankundram and Tirumangalam constituencies. For Usilampatti and Sholavandan constituencies, Anna University Regional Campus at Vadapalanji will be the counting centre.
Madurai district recorded a final voter turnout of 70.46 %. A total of 19,00,881 votes were polled in the district.
An official from the district administration said that on Saturday the randomisation of EVMs for each of the assembly constituencies was completed. On Sunday morning around 6 a.m., the randomisation of EVMs will be done to allocate the EVMs for each table.
Votes polled in 3,856 booths across the district will be counted on Sunday. It has been planned to have 14 counting tables in each round in each counting hall. One micro observer, counting assistant and counting supervisor will be deployed for each table.
Around 420 government staff will be on duty at the four counting centres. "All the government staff have either been tested RT-PCR negative or have completed their two doses of COVID-19 vaccination," said the official.
Similarly, 2,872 agents of political parties and around 160 candidates who have tested negative for COVID-19 will be present in the counting centres.
CCTV cameras have been placed to record the counting process at all the counting rooms. Security personnel have been posted to ensure smooth counting process on Sunday, the official added.