Parties guard counting centres, seek webcast

To thwart poaching, leaders of various political events are tenting in Manipur as counting of ballots will happen on Thursday. The Janata Dal (United) has written to the EC to direct the district election officers to make sure that correct CCTV protection of the counting centres is ensured and counting of postal ballots is completed earlier than the counting of EVM votes. A brand new spherical of counting needs to be taken up solely after the announcement of every spherical of counting and enough safety be supplied to the counting brokers, they mentioned.

In Uttar Pradesh, a day after about 20 digital voting machines had been intercepted by Samajwadi Celebration staff whereas they had been being transported, celebration staff heeded to SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s name to “defend their votes”, tenting in a single day exterior counting centres to maintain a vigil on the EVMs. BSP staff too saved guard. It will proceed on Wednesday night time too. They intercepted many autos of officers getting into the premises of the counting centres to test for his or her id.

In Mathura, SP staff had been joined by BSP staff and a row erupted when a tehsil workers who had come to arrange computer systems, was discovered with out an ID card. The returning officer, nonetheless, confirmed that he was a tehsil workers who had forgotten his ID card and the matter was introduced underneath management. They saved flagging alleged malpractices at numerous centres throughout the state, taping it on digicam and circulating movies on social media, after which motion was taken in opposition to many officers.

The SP additionally wrote a letter to the EC demanding that the counting course of be webcast, very like how 50% of the cubicles in every constituency had been introduced underneath webcast, and the hyperlink for viewing it’s shared with the political events, together with the chief election commissioner and district electoral officers, in order that the method is carried out in a good and clear method.

The BJP and SP additionally carried out coaching of their counting brokers. Talking to ET, SP’s nationwide basic secretary Rajeev Rai mentioned counting brokers had been being given applicable coaching to verify postal ballots had been counted as there’s “huge scope of manipulation” there.

Like in Goa, the Congress in Manipur has administered loyalty pledge to its candidates within the run-up to the polls. Candidates had been taken to temple, mosque, church and the historic Kangla Fort.

BJP within the run-up to the polls had labored out an off-the-cuff settlement of cooperation with its members, discouraging them from switching sides. Within the 2017 meeting polls, the Congress emerged as the only largest celebration with 28 MLAs within the 60-member Manipur meeting. Later, round eight Congress MLAs left the celebration. BJP gained 21 seats.