T’puram: The results of the elections to local self-govt institutions in state, held in two phases on Dec 9 and 11, will be out on Saturday. Counting of votes will begin at 8am. Postal votes will be counted first, followed by the votes polled using EVMs.The TREND software of state Election Commission will provide real-time updates of the counting across state to all three tiers of LSGIs. A total of 75,644 candidates contested in the election and of these, 52.36% were women. While 39,609 women candidates were in the fray, the number of male candidates was 36,034. The only transgender candidate in the fray contested from Pothancode ward in Thiruvananthapuram district panchayat. Block-level centres will count votes polled to village, block panchayats and district panchayats. Votes polled to municipalities and corporations will be counted at the respective LSGIs. There will be a total of 244 counting centres. Additionally, postal ballots for the 14 district panchayats will be counted at the collectorates under the leadership of the respective district collectors. Postal ballots for village and block panchayats will be counted at the respective returning officers’ tables in block-level centres. Initially, postal ballots will be counted, followed by votes from the voting machines. Only the control units from the electronic voting machines will be brought from the strongrooms to the tables for counting. The strongroom will be opened in the presence of the returning officer, assistant returning officer, observers, candidates and agents. The machines from each ward will be taken to the counting hall for counting, an official statement from state Election Commissioner, A Shajahan said. Voting machines will be arranged on each counting table according to the chronological order of ward numbers. All polling station machines from a ward will be counted at the same table. Votes will be counted in the presence of the candidate or the counting agents appointed by the candidates. Before the counting, the seals and special tags on the control unit will be checked and confirmed in the presence of the candidates or their counting and election agents. The vote count for village panchayat candidates will first be obtained from the control unit, followed by the block panchayat and district panchayat candidates. The results from each control unit will be recorded by the counting supervisor and submitted to the returning officer. Once the postal ballots and all booth votes in a ward are counted, the respective returning officer will announce the results. As each booth is counted, the vote status will be uploaded to the TREND system, allowing real-time updates on the lead and results. Only individuals authorised by the returning officer will be allowed entry to the counting centre. Entry is permitted for counting officials, officials authorised by Election Commission, candidates, election agents and counting agents, the statement said.
