Representative image showing a person cast a vote
Credit: iStock Photo
All 70 constituencies of Delhi will go to polls on February 5, and results will be declared on February 8. While AAP is trying to return to power, Congress and BJP will try and deter these ambitions, especially given that the excise policy case has left a blot on senior leaders like Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia -- both of whom spent time in Tihar jail.
With a charged assembly election coming up, here we take a look at what happens on counting day.
What happens on counting day?
On counting day, in the presence of the Election Commission (EC) Special Observers and returning officers along with candidates or their representatives, the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) are brought out of the strong room. The whole process is filmed.
Under CCTV surveillance, the EVMs' control units are then brought to counting tables. Before being taken out, each CU's unique ID number and signed seal is verified and shown to the polling agent of the candidates.
Then, a button on the unit is pressed and it displays the vote each candidate secured, next to their names, on the EVM. These numbers get recorded in the results sheet.
In the presence of the General Observer and party candidates or their representatives, the Returning Officer then conducts a 'draw of lots' to randomly select a Voter-verified paper audit trail(VVPAT) machine for counting paper slips.
The counting takes place inside a secure VVPAT counting booth which has a camera inside the counting hall and only occurs after the last round of counting EVM votes in a constituency.
The VVPAT and EVM numbers do not match, the slips are recounted. If the discrepancy persists, the VVPAT number takes precedence over the EVM numbers and result sheets are amended to reflect the same. Opposition parties can call for a count of all VVPAT machines in a constituency in case of such occurrences.