Counting of votes begins today
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 27 — The fate of 815 candidates who are contesting the Delhi Assembly elections would be decided tomorrow, when the counting of the votes polled begins.

It may be well into the night by the time the results begin coming for the 69 assembly seats where polling took place on November 25.

The counting would start at 11 different centres at 8 am tomorrow amid tight security. The actual counting would start only around 5 pm as the larger part of the day would be devoted to unfolding and mixing of the ballot papers.

Polling was postponed in the Nangloi Jat Assembly constituency following the killing of the Samata Party candidate, Mr Ved Singh.

The earliest results from the six assembly constituencies in Delhi where electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used during Wednesday’s polling are likely to come in only by afternoon tomorrow.

The state election office today clarified that final results from the EVMs would not be out with the press of a button.

"We have constraints of space and only six polling stations from each of these constituencies will be taken up in one round. With an average of 100 polling stations in a constituency, it will require about 16 rounds to complete the process. Also every counting agent will have to be allowed about 10 seconds to take note of each entry," an official said.

About 10,000 personnel would be on duty at the counting centres.

The constituencies where EVMs were used are Gole Market, Minto Road, Kasturba Nagar, Sarojini Nagar, Delhi Cantonment and Jangpura.

The officials said that results from 63 constituencies, where ballot papers were used, would start trickling in by late night or in the early hours of Sunday. Among these, Badarpur has the maximum electorate of 2,02,376 while Matia Mahal has the lowest of 78,843 voters.

All the counting centres have been equipped with computers for instant dissemination of information on the trends.

A turnout of 49.52 per cent, over 10 per cent less than in the 1993 Assembly elections, was recorded during the polling involving an electorate of nearly 8.3 million. This was marginally higher than the lowest ever polling of 48.5 per cent recorded in the Capital in the 1991 general election.

The Najafgarh Assembly segment in Outer Delhi has the highest voter turnout of 61.60 per cent on Wednesday while Okhla in South Delhi registered the lowest of 39.93 per cent.

Repolling peaceful

JAIPUR, Nov 27 (PTI) — Around 70 per cent of the electorate exercised its franchise peacefully during repoll at 44 polling stations in the 19 assembly constituencies of Rajasthan, an Election Department spokesman said.

At many polling booths, the voter turnout was between 70 and 80 per cent.

The repoll was held following suspension of polling on Wednesday in view of incidents of ballot paper snatching and rigging.

Bhopal: Repoll in 69 polling stations in the 15 assembly constituencies of Madhya Pradesh today passed off peacefully with an estimated voter turnout of about 50 per cent, official sources said.

Repoll was held in the maximum number of 49 booths in the dacoit-infested Bhind district, where there were several incidents of group clashes and exchange of fire between supporters of rival political parties.

Gandhinagar: An estimated 67.99 per cent of 1759 voters today exercised their franchise during repoll in two polling stations of the Broach Lok Sabha constituency in Gujarat.

Repoll was ordered following incidents of bogus voting, snatching of ballot papers and stone throwing during by-election on Wednesday.

According to official sources, repoll was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported.