Hyderabad: All arrangements have been made for counting of votes for Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in Hyderabad on Friday.
Of all the constituencies in the city, counting of Charminar Assembly constituency will be the first to be completed and that of Yakutpura constituency likely to be the last.
This is because polling stations in Charminar constituency are only 179 and counting of votes would be completed in just 13 rounds. Each round will take no more than 20 minutes and within four-and-a-half hours, the winner is likely to be declared. While Yakutpura Assembly segment, with 243 polling stations will require 21 rounds of counting. It will take seven hours to finish counting of votes in this constituency.
The strong rooms in which the EVMs have been kept will be opened at 6.30am and counting of votes will commence at 8 am. The officials will first count votes of postal ballot before taking up EVMs. As per the election commission directions, printer-cum-auxiliary display units (PADU) will be utilised which can also give printouts of votes polled to each candidate, if necessary.
Hyderabad District Election officer Somesh Kumar said that request for recounting of votes will be allowed only if the winning margin is less than postal ballot. The returning officer will have the powers to give this permission. Recounting of votes can be taken up in case of a tie between votes polled for both candidates, added Mr Kumar.
