Nagaland all set for vote counting; fate of 183 candidates to be revealed today

KOHIMA — Chief Electoral Officer, Nagaland V Shashank Shekhar on Wednesday said the counting of votes in all the 2291 polling booths will start at 8 am today, March 2.

The counting of votes will start with the postal ballot before proceeding to electronic voting machines (EVMs) after half-an-hour, he said during a press conference at his office chamber in Kohima.

The CEO said that counting of votes for the 59 assembly constituencies will take place simultaneously with 59 counting observers of the Election Commission monitoring closely, he said.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Kazheto Kinimi was earlier declared elected unopposed from 31 Akuluto AC after his lone opponent Khekashe Sumi of the Congress withdrew his candidature days before the state went to the poll.

Out of remaining 59 assembly constituencies, 39 have already earmarked separate rooms and 26 have been accommodated in a hall, but as per the standard norms, partitions have been made for separate entry and exit.

Elaborate security arrangements have been made, he said, adding that state police man the outer cordon, state armed police in the middle, and the Central police armed forces in the innermost row.

‘In addition to the EVM counting, which will be done round-wise, there will a separate booth for VVPAT counting in the end, wherein mandatory verification of the paper slips will be done in five randomly selected polling stations per AC,’ he said, adding that there will be a total of 386 counting tables.

Counting centres for Peren will take place at ADC’s Conference Hall and Dobashis court, while it will be done in the ADC Conference Hall for Pughoboto. For Zunheboto, the centre is the town hall/ badminton hall; Wokha in Tiyi Hall; Tuensang in CKS/ SIRD hall.

The centres for the remaining 11 districts — Dimapur, Kohima, Phek, Mokokchung, Mon, Longleng, Kiphire, Noklak, Chumoukedima, Tseminyu, and Shamator — are the respective deputy commissioner’s offices.