About two-third of votes, that is around 2.7 crore out of a total of 4.11 crore ballots cast through Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) in Bihar, has been counted till 6 pm, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has said.
"Almost two-third of the votes has been counted till 6 pm in Bihar. About 2.7 crores out of 4.11 crore EVM votes have been counted," Secretary-General of the ECI, Umesh Sinha, told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday evening.
"As of 6 pm, out of 243 Assembly constituencies in Bihar, results of only nine seats have been declared."
He added in the bypolls, results have been declared for five constituencies in Gujarat, one in Haryana, and one in Nagaland.
He further said that keeping in mind the COVID-19 pandemic protocols, seven counting tables have been placed in the halls instead of 14.
"Considering the protocols of the pandemic, the counting process has been suitably modified to maintain the norms of social distancing, wearing of masks, stisation and other safety measures," he said.
He added the number of postal ballots has also increased. "We have electronically transmitted postal ballots for the service voters, voters above 80 years of age, differently-abled persons, and members of the essential services."
He further said, "We have on average about 35 rounds of counting for the Assembly constituencies. In some cases where the Assembly constituencies are big, the rounds maybe 50 or so. Each round takes about 20-30 minutes, which includes tabulation, and distribution of round results to the candidates and counting agents."
"The emphasis of the ECI is on following the COVID-19 guidelines amply. The officials must not be in a hurry to declare the results. The final results may come late at night," he added.
Counting of votes began from 8 am for the 243-member Bihar Assembly and Valmiki Nagar Parliamentary seat bypoll, besides the bypolls in 54 Assembly constituencies of 11 states.
In Bihar elections, the fate of 3,755 candidates will be decided with the Election Commission setting up a total of 55 counting centres, housing 414 halls, spread across all 38 districts of the state.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor