The official results of the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala will be out only after 8 pm on May 23, said Chief Electoral Officer Teeka Ram Meena.
Speaking to the media on Saturday, Teeka Ram Meena said that there will be 29 counting locations, which will include postal ballots and electronic voting machines (EVMs).
"At some locations, both postal and EVMs ballots will be counted. Counting will first be taken up at 8.30 am at locations with postal ballot counters, followed by the ones with EVMs,” said Meena.
On account of new rules in counting, in every constituency, around 6 VVPAT machines will be counted. “This will be taken up only after the entire EVMs and postal ballots are counted. We expect counting of these VVPATs in around 6 hours and the final results in each of the 20 constituencies could be officially declared after 8 pm," he said.
He also added that if there the VVPAT machine count and EVM count doesn’t tally, the figure of the VVPAT will be taken. He also added that around 70,000 votes will have to be counted.
"There will be 14 rounds of counting in each constituency and in those locations that have postal ballot counting centres, after the 12th round of counting EVMs, the 13th round will start only after all the postal ballots are counted," added Meena.
Meanwhile, for the repolling being conducted in seven booths in the state in Kasaragod and Kannur Lok Sabha constituencies, Teeka Ram Meena said that security arrangements have been tightened, with three layers of security cover. Polling, which began at 7 am on Sunday will end by 6 pm. The seven polling booths include four booths in Kasaragod's Kalliasseri and Trikaripur Assembly segments and three booths in Kannur's Taliparamba and Dharmadam Assembly constituencies.
(With inputs from IANS)