Counting of postal ballots will start at 8 am, following which EVMs will be taken into account. But the announcement of results will begin at 3 pm in Karnataka, said the Election Commission.
Bengaluru: Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka Sanjeev Kumar has announced that there will be a four-hour delay in announcing the results of Lok Sabha elections. The delay due to the fact that officers have been asked to match the results with VVPAT details as per the order of the Supreme Court.
The counting will begin at 8 am tomorrow (May 23). First lot of votes to be counted are the postal ballots at the office of returning officer. This will be followed by the counting process in select counting stations.
A total of 90,000 postal ballots have been cast. However, the votes cast in mock voting have not been separated. Thus counting of these EVMs will take place separately.
At least 40 VVPATs were installed along with the EVMs at each Lok Sabha constituency in Karnataka. Election was held for 28 Parliamentary constituencies and bypolls in two Assembly constituencies in the state.
VVPATs are the additional boxes kept by the side of EVMs where a slip with voting details (candidate's name and party along with time) are recorded and stored.
The counting will take place in 28 centres in Karnataka. A total of 3,324 tables have been kept ready. More than 11,000 staff have been deployed for counting of the votes.
As per Sanjeev Kumar, the results are expected to be out by 7 pm.
Sanjeev Kumar has said that the Election Commission (EC) would try to complete the counting process as soon as possible by deploying additional staff.
Ahead of the results, political parties have started holding meetings with possible allies.
NDA had arranged dinner for allies ahead of counting while TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu met JD(S) national president HD Deve Gowda at the latter's residence in Bengaluru.
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