The hustle and bustle of electioneering for over 70 days for the general election to the State Assembly that kept the voters and the political parties guessing would draw to its logical conclusion when the counting of votes for the seven Assembly constituencies for the district would be taken up on Thursday morning.
The clear trend that would seal the electoral destiny of 128 candidates, including a State Minister and three former Ministers contesting in Virudhunagar district, is likely to be out by noon.
Electronic voting machines used in 1,872 polling booths across the district have been kept under a three-tier security at two counting centres.
Out of the total of 15,40,318 eligible voters in the list, a total of 11,77,504 or 76.45 per cent of voters turned up to exercise their franchise on May 16.
While the counting of votes for five Assembly constituencies of Sattur, Sivakasi, Virudhunagar, Aruppukottai and Tiruchuli would be done at Vellaichamy Nadar Polytechnic College and the counting for the remaining for two constituencies – Rajapalayam and Srivilliputtur, would be held at the nearby Virudhunagar Senthikumara Nadar College. Counting of postal votes would be taken up first at 8 a.m. along with counting of votes in the EVMs in the presence of the General Observers. Each counting hall for the constituency would have 14 tables and the proceedings in each of the table would be captured live with cameras. The proceedings would be live streamed and also recorded, an official said.
Similarly, the entire counting process would be under the watchful eyes of micro-observers.
However, the last round of counting in EVMs in each constituency would be taken up only after declaring the results of postal votes.
No mobile phones would be allowed inside the counting halls that would be manned by central paramilitary personnel. Only those counting agents of candidates with proper identity card would be allowed into the cordoned off portion inside the halls.
