Second round of training on counting process in South Sikkim

NAMCHI, 08 May [IPR]: The second round of Joint Inspection of Strong Room and Training for the candidates, Election Agents and Election Representatives of all political parties of South District was held at Namchi today. The event was chaired by DC (South), Prabhakar Verma.
ADC (South), Kapil Meena and DC (South), Prabhakar Verma briefed the election candidates, party agents and the election representatives concerning the safety measures observed to ensure the safe keeping of the EVMs and Postal Ballots in the Strong Room at Government Senior Secondary School. Mr. Verma notified the party agents and candidates about the ECI Guidelines which lays down stringent rules including CCTV surveillance for monitoring; maintenance of Log Book to regulate the entry and exit of individuals to and from the Strong Room and due authorization to avoid any discrepancies in the security measures adopted by the administration. Later, Mr. Verma gave a tour of the Strong Room premises to the candidates, their agents and the representatives of the political parties.
Following the inspection the team headed towards the District Conference Hall, Namchi for a meeting of all the candidates/agents for a brief on the Counting Process where Deputy Secretary (Elections), Bishal Mukhia welcomed the gathering. Prabhakar Verma then elucidated the appointment procedure of Micro Observer and Counting Agents to the gathering thereby also informing them that the last day of appointment of the Counting Agent for all the political parties will be 13 May, 2014 before 5 p.m. He also specified that 7 tables each for Parliamentary & Assembly Constituencies and 2 tables for Postal Ballot will be allotted for the Counting of votes.
Further, he stated that the counting process for the Postal Ballot will commence on 16 May at 8 a.m. followed by counting of the EVM votes at 8:30 a.m. Mr. Verma reiterated that only after the Postal Ballot counting concludes the EVM counting will be taken up. In addition, Mr. Verma also informed the gathering about the seating arrangements for the party representatives/ candidates on the day of the counting; the do’s and don’ts as well as the security measures that will be deployed to ensure fair and peaceful Poll Counting.
Later, Kapil Meena gave details of the particulars of Postal Ballot paper counting and clarified the doubts raised by the Election Candidates, Election Agents and Election Representatives. The participants were also informed that a second meeting may be called to detail out the security arrangements to the candidates if required. Also present in the training was Assistant Collector, Mr Raghul and other election staff.