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Mangalore: Counting of the votes will take place in 15-17 rounds of 200 polling stations each and the results will be announced between 11 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Each of the eight constituencies will be provided with four tables and each table will be assigned a sector officer, counting supervisor, counting agent and a micro observer. The agents have to be seated by 7.30 a.m. and no mobiles or communication devices will be allowed inside the counting rooms. Information to the media will be provided from the media room.

Voters’ turnout

A total number of 11,18,025 voters exercised their franchise in the district, recording a voter turnout of 74.91 per cent, including the postal ballots, in the Assembly elections, said Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada Harsh Gupta, adding that the number of voters identified using Elector’s Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) was 6,48,013 and of those who voted using voter slips was 4,35,806.

Addressing a press conference in here on Monday, Gupta said that the voter turnout in the elections that were held yesterday indicated an increase of voter turnout by 1.83 per cent as compared to 2008 Assembly elections which stood at 73.08 per cent.

The entire polling process in the district was logistically smooth and took place peacefully. Due to technical problems, nine Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) had to be replaced before elections. Eight others were replaced during elections, well within time, so there was no disruption during polling. Polling was spread evenly across polling stations, and the polling percentage has improved in all polling areas, he said.

The highest voting percentage was 95.23 recorded at Ranipura polling station (38A) in Mangalore constituency, while the lowest was 41.04 in Bala (155) in Moodbidri constituency.

A total of 74.59 pc men and 74.38 pc women turned out to vote in the district. A total number of 81 voters exercised the NOTA (None of the above) vote option in the district. The number of tendered votes were four, all in Bantwal constituency, he said.

Webcasting

Although it was planned to extend webcasting to all the 208 polling stations in Mangalore South constituency, it was provided only at 151 stations. A total of 272 polling stations in the entire district were covered under webcasting, the highest in the state, said Gupta, adding that the experiment had proved quite successful, with a success percentage of 73 in Mangalore South.

A few polling stations could not be covered due to technical issues, as well as due lack of electricity in few other polling stations in Sullia constituency. Although it had been suggested as a pilot exercise, webcasting could henceforth be introduced as a formal process. It will pave the way for large coverage of polling during elections in the future, he said, adding that he was happy with the experiment of webcasting.

The smartphone reporting experiment was also a new exercise, which was reported as successful by officials. The wireless network system also worked well, and proved successful. However, the transportation facility provided for voters was not a big success, as information could not percolate down to the voting population, especially in remote places and rural areas, the DC said.

Success of SVEEP

Shedding light on the outcome of Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) initiative in the district, he said that there was some improvement in rural areas as a result of the initiative. A sum of Rs 2.5 lakhs had been allotted for each constituency, and each Block Level Officer (BLO) was given a sum of Rs 1.25 lakhs for this purpose. In this regard, the top 20 polling stations with highest polling percentage will be selected and the BLOs concerned with those stations will be given incentives by the Election Commission, said Gupta.