Hyderabad: Municipal election counting began across Telangana at 8 am on Friday under tight security arrangements.
Authorities deployed 10,800 personnel for the municipal election counting process statewide. A total of 10,179 candidates contested from 2,569 wards in 116 municipalities. Meanwhile, 2,225 candidates competed in 412 divisions across seven municipal corporations.
Officials set up 123 counting centres across the State. Initially, they counted postal ballot votes. Subsequently, they shifted sealed ballot boxes from strong rooms to counting tables, ward and division-wise.
In the presence of candidates and counting agents, officials broke the seals. They opened all ballot boxes of a ward or division together and mixed the votes thoroughly. After mixing, the staff prepared bundles of 25 ballot papers each.
They then grouped 40 such bundles to form a stack of 1,000 votes. If any bundle contained fewer than 25 ballots, staff tagged it separately for counting.
Security tightened during municipal election counting
Police deployed heavy security at all counting centres. Additionally, authorities arranged CCTV webcasting inside and outside the halls. The Election Commission banned mobile phones and electronic gadgets within the premises.
Only counting supervisors, assistants, candidates and authorised agents with valid passes received entry. Officials used wooden trays with separate compartments for each candidate, NOTA and doubtful votes.
After segregation, staff will count votes round-wise. Supervisors will record the figures and sign the result sheet for each round. Thereafter, agents will sign the round statements.
Finally, the Returning Officer will declare the candidate who secures the highest votes elected and issue the certificate.
