The Election Commission has appointed 138 additional counting observers for the 293 Assembly constituencies where votes will be tallied in Bengal on Monday.
Already, 294 such observers have been appointed, one for each constituency. The elections in Falta, South 24-Parganas, were cancelled on Sunday and repolling will take place on May 21. All the counting observers are central government employees.
The counting is to begin at 8am.
“The additional counting observers have been deployed to help the existing observers in places that have multiple counting rooms. In 2021, several complaints had been filed over the counting process and the EC does not want a repetition,” a poll panel official said.
Sources in the poll panel said the additional counting observers had been deployed in constituencies that are expected to witness close battles. In the seats that see nailbiting contests, the counting agents of rival parties try to create pressure on the observers to get close decisions in their favour. The presence of additional observers will help the counting observers maintain their cool,” a source said.
According to the deployment plan, North 24-Parganas will have the maximum number of additional counting observers — 49 for the 33 Assembly seats in the district where votes will be counted, followed by 44 for South 24-Parganas’ 30 constituencies.
The EC has decided to randomise the officials who will count the votes in such a manner that nobody, not even the employees concerned, will know beforehand which table within a constituency they will beassigned.
“The third (i.e. final) randomisation of counting personnel shall be done by the concerned RO in the presence of ECI observer at 5am on the day of counting,” an instruction from theEC says.
A source said there had been allegations in earlier elections of a “nexus” between agents of political parties and sections of counting personnel to alter the results in some Assemblyseats.
This apart, the EC has taken a series of other measures to ensure that the entire exercise of counting of votes is held smoothly.
There will be three-layer security checks before reaching the counting hall. QRcode-based identity cards have been issued to the candidates, their counting agents, government officials on counting duty and observers.
The seating arrangement is such that the counting agents of political parties can see the contents of the control unit display but cannot touch the machine.
The candidates and their agents will not be allowed to cross the demarcated area around the counting tables, but the process will be visible to them from where they will be seated.
The microobservers will have to ensure that correct entries are made on the software at each table for the tabulation of the finalresults.