Voter Turnout App figures are right: CEO

Chennai: Amidst persistent criticism over the repeated changes in the voting percentage put out by the Election Commission of India, the State’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sathyabrata Sahoo clarified the reason behind the faux pas and said that Voter Turnout App gave the right figures.

Since the media was always in a hurry to publish the voting percentage and the details were obtained over telephone in haste from the various Returning Officers (RO) and Assistant Returning Officers (ARO) in the field and passed on there was bound to be some error in the immediate tabulation, Sahoo told media persons in Chennai on Monday.

However, only when the details were submitted in writing by the ROs and AROs they became the final figure and that too was passed on to the media, he said. The Voter Turnout App figures were accurate, he said.

Asked about the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct after the completion of polls in the State on Friday, Sahoo said that it would be in force in 12 districts that shared a border with other States where polling had not been completed.

So, Tiruvallur, Vellore, Krishnagiri, Salem, Erode, Nilgiris, Coimbatore, Theni, Tirunelveli, Kanyakumari, Tenkasi ad Tirupattur districts would continue to enforce the MCC till the elections in the neighbouring States were completed, he said.  

He said the polled EVMs had been stored in the strong rooms of 39 Counting Centres (43 buildings) for the 39 Parliamentary Constituencies after the conclusion of poll on Friday. 

The ECI had allotted 190 companies of CAPF/SAP to Tamil Nadu for elections and 15 companies had been retained after the  polling process was over, for guarding the strong rooms. Adequate security was being  provided to all the counting centers as per ECI guidelines. The strong rooms were secured with a double lock system and three layers of security cover were being provided  to each of the counting centers, he said.

‘The inner perimeter of the counting center is  under the direct control of CAPF personnel, the second security layer is  manned by State Armed Police Force. The third layer of security is provided by the State Police. The entire Counting centre is under CCTV surveillance and the ROs visit the strong rooms daily to check the security of the strong room,’ he said. 

As per the direction of ECI, Flying Squad Teams and Static Surveillance Teams were being deployed at the districts sharing borders with neighbouring States and at strategic locations till the counting day, he added.