AP Municipal Elections: Counting of votes begin for 12 Corporations and 75 municipalities

The counting of votes in 12 Municipal corporations and 75 municipalities in Andhra Pradesh has begun. The results will be released by the evening. The elected corporators and councilors will elect their respective corporations, municipalities, city panchayat mayors, deputy mayors, chairpersons and vice chairpersons on the 18th of this month. The High Court has directed the State Election Commission not to count the votes for the Eluru Corporation in West Godavari district. Guntur district Chilakaluripet municipality has been directed not to declare the result even if the votes are counted. Neither of these two results emerges in this context.

On the other hand arrangements have been made across the state for the counting of votes. A total of 4 thousand 26 counting tables were set up by SEC. Of these, 2,204 are in city administrations and 1,822 in municipalities and city panchayats. 4,317 people were appointed as counting supervisors and 12,607 people were appointed as counting staff. Huge security arrangements are being made to prevent any untoward incidents during the counting of votes. 20,419 policemen are being deployed including 172 DSPs, 476 CIs and 1,345 SIs.

State Election Commissioner Nimmagadda Ramesh Kumar has directed that the counting process be video recorded at all counting centers. Authorities were instructed to make the necessary arrangements to complete the counting by 8pm on Sunday while returning and election officials have been directed to direct recounting if the winning margins are less than 9 votes so that there is no confusion and no room for secrecy.

If any of the candidates asked for a recount to be held anywhere where the majority is in the doldrums, District Collector or District Electoral Officer should take the call. Strong rooms and counting centers were ordered to take adequate measures to ensure uninterrupted power supply and to make arrangements such as generators and inverters in case of any interruption in power supply.