Hyderabad: Counting for the just-concluded municipal elections held across 116 municipalities and seven municipal corporations will take place on Friday, February 13, the Telangana State Election Commission (SEC) announced on Thursday.
Counting will begin at 8:00 am across all designated counting centres. Section 163 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita will be in force in and around the centres.
Only the counting supervisors, counting assistants, candidates and their election agents and counting agents will be allowed inside the hall. Mobile phones and electronic gadgets are prohibited.
Webcasting arrangements have been made in all the centers and outside strong rooms.
Counting process
Officials will begin with the counting of postal ballots, followed by regular ballot papers. Ballot boxes from each ward will be brought to the counting table one by one, and ballot papers from each polling station will be bundled in sets of 25.
If the leftover ballots are fewer than 25, they will be stacked up into a separate bundle and labelled with the count.
After recording the details, these bundles will be placed in a drum and thoroughly mixed. Those with fewer than 25 papers will be combined to form full bundles and added.
Any remaining ballots will be kept separately with a slip indicating their number.
The same process will be repeated for every ward.
After this, in each counting round, 1,000 ballots (40 bundles) will be randomly taken from the drum and sent to each counting table.
The ballots will be examined for validity, and each ballot will be placed in wooden trays containing compartments for each contesting candidate, NOTA and doubtful votes.
Valid votes for each candidate will be tied up in hundreds, and the remaining will be held separately with a slip noting the count. Doubtful and NOTA votes will also follow the same process.
Candidate-wise totals and doubtful votes will be recorded in the counting sheet before signed by the Counting Supervisor. In case of doubtful votes, the Returning Officer will make a decision.
Candidate votes and rejected votes will be entered on the final result sheet.
Prohibitory orders issued
Malkajgiri and Cyberabad police have issued orders prohibiting the assembly of five or more persons within a 500-metre radius of the counting centre.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, CH Sridhar, issued an order prohibiting the assembly of people at the Telangana Minorities Residential School and Junior College in Jaganguda under the Muduchintalapally Municipality from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm on February 13.
While Serilingampally DCP, Ch Srinivas has issued the same order for three counting centres under the Cyberabad commissionerate, which will be in effect from 5:00 am on February 13 to 6:00 am on February 14.
Tribal Welfare Degree College for Men at Peddakanjerla village under Indresham Municipality, Zilla Parishad High School (ZPHS) at Isnapur village under Isnapur Municipality and ZPHS at Gaddapotharam village under Gaddapotharam Municipality have been designated as counting centres in the Cyberabad commissionerate.
Additionally, the Quthbullapur zone in-charge DCP, T Sai Manohar, has prohibited the assembly of people around two counting centres from 6:00 am to 11:00 pm on February 13.
The order applies to Bharath Bible College at Dabilpur village under Yellampet Municipality and Sri T Chaitanya School at Majeedpur under Aliyabad Municipality.
