EC increases tables in Maharashtra for speedy vote count

The number of tables in some Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies in Maharashtra has been increased by the EC ahead of counting of votes on May 23. This has been done to increase the speed of counting votes.

Mumbai: In a bid to ensure speedy counting of votes on May 23, the Election Commission (EC) has allowed an increase in the number of tables in some Lok Sabha and assembly constituencies in Maharashtra.

According to an EC letter to the Kolhapur district collectorate there will be 20 tables each instead of 14 in Kolhapur and Hatkanangale Lok Sabha constituencies. The EC also allowed to increase the number of tables in Maval and Panvel assembly constituencies, which are part of Maval Lok Sabha seat.

"The decision is taken mainly due to the number of polling stations in these Lok Sabha and assembly segments. With more number of polling stations, the actual counting procedure with only 14 tables will take over 10 hours to finalise the results," Sanjay Shinde, resident collector of Kolhapur said.

"The VVPAT machines, as well as service voters' papers with bar-codes, are going to be counted as well. The barcode feature is going to increase the counting time. Hence, the state officials had requested the ECI to increase the counting tables and deploy more people for this procedure," he added.

"Similar is the case with Maval and Panvel assembly segments, which are part of Maval Lok Sabha seat. Both the assembly segments have more than 800 polling stations, whereas the general average is of 700-800 polling stations in every assembly segment. Hence, the EC has permitted to use more tables, so that counting of more polling stations can commence at once" an official from Pune district collectorate said.

These requests have been accepted as well. A detailed communication will be shared soon.

The ECI has already started training sessions for the counting day.