Safety measures for counting votes in UP: EC

New Delhi, May 10: The Election Commission (EC) of India has directed the Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer to ensure stringent security measures for the counting of votes to the UP Legislative Assembly and maintain higher transparency in the whole process.

The EC has decided to randomise the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) so as to maintain secrecy of the voters for the purpose of their safety and security. The randomisation could either be carried out by computer or manually. If carried out manually it should be in the presence of senior officials only.

None of the poll officials will be a given a table number in advance and it would also be done on a random basis.

All counting officials should have the photo identity card. The posting of counting supervisors and counting assistants must be done randomly in such a way that the counting officials come to know of the Assembly Constituency and the table assigned to them only at the time of their arrival at the Counting Center on the day of the counting, the EC said.

The reserve staff would be seated separately in an enclosure within the counting centre campus.

The District Election Officer must keep a pool of well-trained officials (including the reserve pool) available for counting purposes. The counting officials are directed to reach the counting center at 0600 hrs on the date of counting, the EC added.

UNI

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