By IANS,
Hyderabad : Mock counting of votes was held Sunday in 106 centres across Andhra Pradesh as the election authorities checked the preparedness for the counting to be taken up May 16.
Chief Electoral Officer I.V. Subba Rao, who reviewed the mock counting at a centre here, allayed apprehensions in some quarters about the electronic voting machines (EVMs). He asked political parties and contesting candidates not to believe the “rumours” about EVMs.
He termed as “baseless” some media reports that sounds were coming from the strong rooms (where the EVMs are kept). According to these reports, the candidates were agitated on hearing the sounds from strong rooms in some districts and urged the polling officers to open the sealed rooms as they were apprehensive that EVMs were being tampered with.
Subba Rao, however, told reporters after a visit to a strong room here Sunday that EVMs were safe and under the tight security of central forces.
The electoral officer said 25,000 personnel were being trained for the counting process at 106 centres. Two more rounds of mock counting will be held before the D-day.
During the mock counting, officials also tested the software package developed for displaying the round-wise results. Votes secured by a candidate in a parliament or assembly constituency will be made available on the official website of the Election Commission – www.eci.gov.in.
The concerned returning officer alone would be authorities to upload the round-wise data.
The electoral officer said the postal ballots would be counted first before taking up the counting of votes recorded in EVMs. Every centre will have tables for parallel counting of votes polled for assembly and parliament elections.
Simultaneous polls to the 294-member state assembly and 42 Lok Sabha seats were held in two phases on April 16 and 23.