Counting of votes to begin from 8 am on June 4; EC issues handbook to poll officials

NEW DELHI: The counting of votes for the General Election and the State Legislative Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and bye-elections to Assembly Constituencies shall be held on June 4 starting at 8 am, the Election Commission said.

The counting of votes for the General Election as well as the State Legislative Assembly of Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh will start at 6 am on Sunday, it added.

Chief Election Commission Rajiv Kumar along with Election Commissioners Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu had reviewed the counting day preparations with all Chief Electoral Officers (CEO) and Returning Officers (RO).

The counting trends and results, as per data entered by RO/ARO for AC/PC will be available on the ECI Website as well as on the Voter Helpline App, both iOS and Android Mobile Apps, the poll body said.

The Voter Helpline App can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or Apple Play Store. Users can use the available filter to find out the winning/leading or trailing candidate details, along with the constituency-wise or State-wise results from the Voter Helpline App.

The poll body has also issued a handbook for Returning Officers and Counting agents available on the ECI website. The comprehensive instructions of the Commission for counting arrangements, procedure of counting of votes and storage of EVMs/VVPATs are already available on the ECI website, it said.

The local display of the trends and results by the CEOs/ROs/DEOs may also be done through the Digital Display Panels, it said.

The Assembly elections in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh were held simultaneously with voting for the 543-member Lok Sabha. The long drawn-out voting process spread over seven phases concluded on Saturday