Nuapada/Bhubaneswar: The counting of votes for the Nuapada assembly by-election in Odisha began at 8 am on Friday under a three-tier security arrangement.
District Election Officer (DEO)-cum-Nuapada Collector Madhusudan Dash said the counting of postal ballots was taken up first as the process commenced.
The counting of votes in EVMs will start from 8.30 am at 14 tables. It will be conducted in 26 rounds.
According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha, RS Gopalan, the VVPAT slips from five randomly selected polling booths will be tallied with the EVM votes as part of the transparency measures suggested by the ECI. The entire counting process will be monitored through CCTV cameras. Besides, the process will be video-recorded,” added the CEO.
Adequate number of security personnel have been deployed at the counting venue. The officials will share the results of each round to the media, said the CEO.
Though there are 14 candidates in the race, a triangular fight is expected between BJP, BJD and Congress. The Nuapada by-election witnessed a voter turnout of over 83.45 per cent, one of the highest recorded in the region.
The bypoll has emerged as a prestige issue for three major political parties as also for Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, BJD president Naveen Patnaik and state Congress chief Bhakta Charan Das.