The counting of votes polled in the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala will begin at 8 a.m. on Tuesday.
The elaborate and closely monitored exercise will kick off with the counting of postal ballots. Votes polled in the electronic voting machines (EVM) will commence half an hour later.
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Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Sanjay Kaul said here on Monday that initial trends would start emerging by 9 a.m. Preparations have been completed for for an error-free and secure counting process, Mr. Kaul said after a final round of consultations with the District Collectors.
A bakery at Uphill, Malappuram, preparing a large cake with the design of Indian Union Muslim League’s flag on the eve of the counting of votes for the Lok Sabha elections on Monday. | Photo Credit: SAKEER HUSSAIN
The final results are expected to be out by late afternoon on Tuesday.
Election officials said the results will be available in real-time on the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) website and the Voter Helpline app.
Kerala had gone to the polls on April 26 in Phase II of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, recording a turnout of 71.27%.
Counting will take place in specially arranged halls across 20 centres in the State. The process will begin on Tuesday morning with the opening of the strong rooms in the presence of the Returning Officer, Assistant Returning Officer, candidates or their election agents and Election Commission of India observers.
The electronically transmitted postal ballots and postal ballots will be counted first at the Returning Officer’s table. Special arrangements are in place for the counting of postal ballots, which had been the subject of Opposition complaints in this elections. Counting officials have been provided extensive training to ensure that the counting process if error-free.
In the case of EVMs, after counting all the machines in each round, the EC observer will randomly select any two machines to verify the recorded count. After verification, the Returning Officer will announce the results of that round. The voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) slips will be verified after the votes in all EVMs are counted. The final results will be declared only after this process is also over.
