Panchayat Elections: Odisha SEC Issues New Set Of Rules For Counting Of Votes Tomorrow

Bhubaneswar: The State Election Commission (SEC) on Friday issued a set of rules for counting of votes polled in the panchayat elections which concluded on Thursday.

As per the SEC rules, if there is a discrepancy between the ballot paper account prepared by the presiding officer and actual ballot papers in the ballot boxes, the ballot papers found in the ballot boxes will be taken into account and the results announced.

The Commission further said if ballot papers in the ballot boxes are more than the total voters in a ward, the counting of votes will be held up and the matter referred to the SEC for a decision.

If the ballot paper account and the votes in the ballot boxes do not tally and the margin of difference between the candidate with the highest vote and the second highest is such that the result could be ascertained without counting the ballot papers of the ward, the discrepancy will be ignored and the result declared.

The SEC also stated that other cases related to the confusion over counting may be referred to the Commission for a decision.

It may be noted that as per the schedule announced by the SEC, counting of votes for zilla parishad zones will commence from Saturday.