Counting of votes in the Vellore Parliamentary electisons will commence at 8 a.m. on Friday. The leads will be available by afternoon.
Briefing officials at the Collectorate on Thursday, District Election Officer and Collector A. Shanmuga Sundram said the process would begin with counting of postal ballots, followed by electronically registered votes and votes polled in ballot units.
In all, there would be 14 tables for the Lok Sabha constituency and each table would have 42 counting personnel, including three officials - a counting supervisor, a micro observer and a counting assistant. He said all the personnel should report for duty by 6 a.m. at the counting centre.
Second level training was imparted to 324 personnel drawn from various government agencies, who will be a part of the counting process at Ranipet Engineering College (REC) in Walajapet. After the elections on Monday, EVMs, control units and VVPAT machines were kept in strong rooms at the REC in Walajapet, the counting centre. A three-tier, round-the-clock security system has been deployed at the centre and the sealed strong rooms are being guarded by the police. While extending invitations by issuing photo-identity cards, the DEO laid out strict restrictions on the coverage of counting progress.