Counting of Ballots Still in Progress – North Andhra Graduates’ Constituency

With the counting of the ballots to begin late yesterday evening, the result of the North Andhra Graduates’ Constituency were supposed to be announced today morning. The counting was taken up at 7 PM at the Swarna Bharathi Indoor Stadium, 14 tables were set up to count 1000 votes each. However, the announcement of the results have been postponed and will be announced tomorrow morning. The reason for the same being, the counting is still in process.

The votes are now being separated into 25 different bundles as per the choice of the voters. Each of the ballot will be unfolded, shown to polling agents and put in their respective compartments. The votes separated will further be bundled into 25 votes each and after a decision being taken on ‘doubtful’ votes, the total votes will be tallied with the results of the first round announced. The results are expected to be announced tomorrow morning and Election Observer K Pravin Kumar, Collector and Returning Officer Pravin Kumar and Joint Collector G Srijana are overlooking the process involving 300 personnel.

A total of 1,08,857 votes have to be counted in eight rounds, and the last round will fall short of 14,000 votes. With a total of 30 candidates in the run, the contest runs between PDF’s A Aja Sarma and TDP-backed BJP nominee PVN Madhav. The counting could’ve been completed early if one of the nominees had gotten 50% and first preference in the polled votes. It will take longer if no one emerges the winner. There will be selective elimination by adding secondary priority votes of the last candidate too. The process will continue till a winner emerges.

The process for counting the votes however began at 8 AM yesterday amidst tight security. Out of the 162 postal ballots issued to the election staff, 116 exercised their franchise and 20 were invalid. The sealed ballot boxes were opened later with 502 boxes containing votes from Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam. After opening the boxes and mixing them, bundles of 25 votes were made. The progress was time consuming with only 22,000 ballots bundles by 1 PM yesterday. The counting is still in progress at the moment.