Mysuru: Counting of votes for the 11 Assembly Constituencies in Mysuru began at 8 am today amidst tight security at the new campus of Maharani Women’s Commerce and Management College at Vinayakanagar (Paduvarahalli), off Hunsur Road, and at the National Institute of Engineering – Institute of Technology (NIE-IT) on KRS Road near BEML, on the outskirts of the city.

District Election Officers and the Returning Officers (ROs) opened the strong rooms at both the centres in the presence of Paramilitary Forces, candidates and their selected agents at 7.30 am and the Electronic Voting Machines, Control Units and the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trial (VVPAT) machines were shifted to the respective counting tables. Each EVM has a code number and shifted to the counting table as per booth and Constituency. For the first time, VVPATs too were coded as per booths and Constituencies.

The counting of votes of Chamundeshwari, Krishnaraja, Narasimharaja, H.D. Kote, Nanjangud, T. Narasipur and Hunsur Assembly Constituencies was carried out at Maharani’s College. At the NIE-IT, the votes of Varuna, K.R. Nagar, Periyapatna and Chamaraja were counted. Initially, the postal ballots were counted and later, the actual votes in the EVMs were counted.

The Election Commission (EC) has appointed a total of 598 staff for the counting process. Out of them, there are 187 supervisors, 187 counting assistants and 224 micro observers. The authorities have arranged 154 tables at 16 rooms to count the votes.

Candidates and their agents were housed in separate barricaded counters at the counting halls and they had no contact with the counting officials.

Media centres

Media centres were established at both centres. The counting centres were kept completely lit all through the night yesterday. Barring election officials and media persons, mobile phones of others were not allowed inside the centres. The area around the centres was barricaded to prevent public from entering. Only authorised persons carrying valid ID cards were allowed inside.

Soon after the counting began, the respective ROs were announcing the number of votes each candidate has secured after every round of counting. The announcements were made using the public address system so that trends could be heard by supporters of the candidates and party workers waiting outside the centres. Loudspeakers were installed at several places around 200 metres area at                the centres.