EC bars replacement of counting agents; over 25K persons involved

Kolkata: The Election Commission (EC) made it clear on Monday that no replacement for the counting agents will be allowed inside the counting halls once the process starts. The fate of 507 candidates will be decided through the counting process on Tuesday.

There will be over 25,000 persons involved in the counting process, including the micro observers.

The total number of counting venues for the 42 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state is 55 with 418 counting halls having 4944 counting tables.

Meanwhile, the EC stated that If any candidate wants to revoke their agent, they will have to do it before the start of counting.

“The Election Commission has issued guidelines for the counting process and we will be strictly adhering to it. There will be no relieving agent to replace the designated counting agent while the counting process is in progress. So any candidate wanting to revoke his/ her agent will have to do the same before the start of counting at 8 am,” said state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Aariz Aftab.

During polling, the agent of a political party in the venue can be relieved by another but it will not be the case during counting.

“There will be three-tier security in the counting venues. The first layer will have an executive magistrate and DFMD (door frame metal detector) accompanied by state police (wielding batons) where identity will be checked. The second layer will have a 100 m pedestrian zone manned by state armed police and the innermost layer will have central forces. There will be checking in all the three layers,” Aftab said. Ninety-two companies of Central Forces will be responsible for guarding the counting venues along with 2525 state police personnel.

The observer will be the sole person allowed to use mobile phones inside the counting venues. There will be no webcasting of the counting venues but they will be under CCTV surveillance.

Polling agents can carry only white paper/ notepad, pen and form 17C (a comprehensive record of information that is provided to polling agents) into the counting venues.

According to the CEO’s office, the highest rounds of counting comprising 23 rounds will be held at Sitalkuchi (booth number 310) and Dinhata (booth number 318) under the Cooch Behar district.

The lowest counting rounds (9) will be held at booth number 251 under Chopra AC in the Darjeeling Parliamentary Constituency.

There will be designated places for media persons inside counting venues.