Bangalore: Elaborate arrangements are in place for the counting of votes in 28 Lok Sabha constituencies across Karnataka on Saturday and about 23,000 officials will be involved in the counting process.
"Counting of postal ballots will be taken up first in each constituency and the first round of counting will be completed by 9 a.m. The first result is expected to be announced by 11.30 a.m. and all results by 1.30 p.m.," state chief electoral officer MN Vidyashankar told reporters in Bangalore on Friday.
With the three parliamentary seats in India's IT hub - Bangalore South, Bangalore Central and Bangalore North - polling an average of 45.49 per cent, which is the lowest across the state, election authorities said results here would be announced earlier than other constituencies.
Polling was held in 17 constituencies on April 23 and 11 constituencies April 30.
Mainstream parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have fielded candidates from all the 28 constituencies, while the regional party Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) from 19 constituencies. The Left parties - Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Communist Party of India (CPI) are contesting from one constituency each.
The average polling percentage in both the phases was 58.48 as against 64.99 percent in the 2004 general elections.
"Results from each parliamentary constituency will be announced after completion of 15 rounds of counting. In all, there will be 501 rounds of counting covering 28 constituencies," Vidyashankar said.
"We have arranged 3,316 tables in 367 halls across the city and district headquarters for counting from 47,578 electronic voting machines (EVMs) that have recorded votes from 43,642 polling stations," the top official said.
About 23,000 officials will be involved for counting of votes across the state, with 3,172 micro observers supervising the process.
"About 43,000 men from the state reserved police and paramilitary forces are being deployed to maintain law and order in and around the counting centres. Prohibitory orders banning assembly of more than five persons will be in force under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) within two-kilometre radius of the counting centres," Vidyashankar added.
In addition to ban on sale of liquor till Saturday night, the police have banned carrying of arms, making provocative speeches, bursting of crackers and organising victory processions within 2km of the counting centres to ensure peace and harmony.
Meanwhile, state information director N R Vishukumar said state-of-the-art facilities have been arranged to transmit the results on real-time basis using unique software with global access on www.karnatakaelections2009.gov.in.
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