Tuesday, May 14, 2024 12:15 [IST]
Last Update: Tuesday, May 14, 2024 06:36 [IST]
GANGTOK,: No late evening anxiously waiting game this time for The Result. The public mandate on which party is governing Sikkim for the next five years is expected be known by 2 pm of June 2.
In contrast, counting and declaration of results for the Assembly elections 2019 had gone beyond 9:30 pm on May 23, 2019.
Counting of votes polled for the Sikkim Assembly elections 2024 on April 19 is taking place on June 2 at the respective district counting centres. The process starts from 6 am with the Election authorities here expecting that counting of votes and declaration of results for the 32 Assembly constituencies to be completed by 2 pm at the maximum.
Recent developments are greatly helping to expedite the poll counting and results declaration of the 2024 Assembly election. The Election Commission of India has authorized the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sikkim to advance the counting time from 7 am to 6 am. Accordingly, counting of votes for the 32 Assembly constituencies of Sikkim is starting from 6 am instead of 7 am fixed earlier.
Importantly, only votes for Assembly constituencies are being counted on June 2 while the vote counting for the lone Lok Sabha seat of Sikkim is taking place on June 4. This frees up considerable resources and manpower to enable simultaneous counting of votes for the 32 Assembly seats.
“This time we are planning to have simultaneous counting for all the 32 Assembly constituencies. Counting of postal ballots and EVM votes will start at the same time for all the 32 constituencies together. We have identified 32 counting halls for the 32 Assembly constituencies for simultaneous or parallel counting of votes. By 1 pm or 2 pm maximum, we should have completed the entire results,” said CEO Sikkim D. Anandan to SIKKIM EXPRESS.
In 2019 election, counting was votes was done in a sequential manner where votes were counted for constituencies turn by turn, which also stretched the final results declaration to night hours.
Counting of postal ballots and EVM votes are expected to conclude by 11:30 am but after that as per procedure, mandatory verification of VVPAT slips have to be done that would push the completion time to around 2 pm.
VVPAT slips of five polling stations in every Assembly constituency would be chosen by draw of lots. These VVPAT slips would be then counted in a sequential manner which will take some more time, informed the CEO Sikkim.
The strong rooms where the EVMs are stored under tight security and constant surveillance would be opened at 5 am, one hour before the counting time.
The total voter turnout of Sikkim stands at 79.90% and this number is likely to go up by another 4% approximately by including the postal ballots. There are 4.66 lakh voters in Sikkim with 146 candidates contesting in the 32 Assembly constituencies and 14 contestants in fray for the lone Lok Sabha seat.
To a question, the CEO Sikkim said the early declaration of Assembly election results is helped by the fact that counting of Parliamentary election votes is not happening the same day, as compared to the previous elections. It will help because we are only focusing on Assembly elections on that day and we can focus on the Parliamentary elections the other day, he said.
It also frees up space in terms of large public halls for the Election authorities to use as counting centres.
“As we are counting votes for Assembly elections only on June 2, we are using all the halls available. That is why we are able to do parallel (simultaneous) counting of all the Assembly constituencies together which will let us know the results much earlier as compared to the 2019 elections,” said the CEO Sikkim.
Timely declaration and notification of results is also important on June 2 as it is the day when the term of this Legislative Assembly of Sikkim is expiring. It was also the chief reason that the ECI pre-poned the counting of votes to June 2 for Sikkim Assembly election instead of the earlier date of June 4. Counting of votes for the lone Lok Sabha seat of Sikkim remains the same date of June 4 at par with rest of nation.
On June 2, the term (Sikkim Legislative Assembly) expires and the notification will be issued the same day so that the Assembly is constituted the same day, said the CEO Sikkim.
Regarding counting day preparations, Anandan informed that training for the Returning Officers and assistant Returning Officers has already been done, and now three rounds of training for counting supervisors and counting assistants would commence in all the six districts.
“Normally it is only two rounds of training for the counting personnel but this time we are planning to have three rounds of training. The first round of training for 3-4 days is starting today, second round is scheduled next week and the third round is planned on May 28 and 29,” informed the CEO.
Regarding infrastructure, the district election officers have been directed to complete all the arrangements at the counting centres by May 15. They have also been asked to prepare the certain required formats and have them ready as early as possible.
Every EVM counting table (one table for one polling station) will be manned by a counting supervisor (gazette rank officer), a counting assistant (Group C staff) and a micro observer (a Central government employee).
