The anxious wait for the result of a high-stakes political battle between the United Democratic Front and the Left Democratic Front in Puthuppally is soon set to be over.
Counting of votes polled in the Assembly byelection on September 5 will begin at the Baselius College auditorium here at 8 a.m. on Friday.
The counting will be held on 20 tables — 14 tables for electronic voting machines, five for postal votes and one for service votes polled through the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS). The process will begin with the counting of the postal votes, followed by the service votes. The votes in the EVMs will be counted in 13 rounds, commencing from Ayarkkunnam grama panchayat. After the votes polled in Ayarkunnam are counted in the first two rounds, votes polled in Akalakunnam, Kooroppada, Manarcaud, Pampady, Puthuppally, Meenadom and Vakathanam grama panchayats will be counted. Following this, five Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) units will be randomly selected for counting the slips.
