Chennai: About two lakh officials will be employed tomorrow in the counting of votes polled during the rural local body elections.
Sources said that 315 counting centres have been set up across the state. ”Counting will begin at 8 am during which the ballot boxes kept in the strong rooms will be opened in the presence of agents. The trends are expected to be known afternoon. The final results will be announced in the evening,” sources added.
Tight security has been given to the strong rooms and the counting centres. During the first phase, 77.73 per cent of votes were polled and in the second phase 72.70 per cent polling was recorded.
Meanwhile, repolling was held in nine polling booths in Cuddalore, Thoothukudi, Nagapattinam, Theni and Madurai today. The repolling was initiated after the voting slips were wrongly given in these booth. Every voter had to cast four votes in rural local bodies.
Election officials said that arrangements were made in such a way that voters did not get confused. Elections were held for about 91,000 posts. About 2,30,000 voters were in the fray for the rural body elections.
The first phase of election was held on 27 December and the second phase on 30 December. Winners will assume office on 6 January. Following this, indirect elections to President posts will be held on 11 January from 7 am to 5 pm. Nominations for the election began on 9 December and the final candidates list was announced on 19 December.
AIADMK and DMK MLAs camped at the constituencies where elections were held and campaigned for their party candidates. It may be noted that elections were not held in nine districts that were newly formed.