Chennai: In the urban local government elections held in Tamil Nadu yesterday, 61 percent votes were registered. Rooms where electronic voting machines are locked and sealed are monitored 24 hours a day by CCTV cameras. The voting machine is guarded by 3 layers of gun-toting police. Voting starts at 8 a.m. tomorrow.
In Tamil Nadu, elections were held yesterday in a single phase for a total of 12,820 ward councilor posts in 21 corporations, 138 municipalities and 489 municipalities, including Chennai, Trichy, Madurai and Goa. 57,746 contested for 12,870 ward councilor positions. 55,337 control machines and 1,06,121 voting machines were used in polling stations across the state.
1.32 lakh teachers and civil servants and 1.13 lakh police personnel were involved in the election campaign. Voting started at 7 am and went smoothly. The public waited in long queues to pay their democratic duty. Out of a total of 30,745 polling stations, 25,735 polling stations were fitted with CCTV cameras and monitored. 5,000 polling stations were monitored by webcam.
Those who did not come to the polls wearing masks were given masks there. Voting machines are faulty in only one or two places. It was immediately corrected by the election officials and the voting took place without any hindrance. Voting took place in all districts of Tamil Nadu till 6 pm the day before yesterday except in Chennai. In Chennai alone, the polling was very sluggish from morning till evening. According to the final results, a total of 60.70% votes were recorded in Tamil Nadu. The turnout was 74.68 per cent in the municipality, 68.22 per cent in the municipality and 52.22 per cent in the corporation. At the same time, in Chennai, only 43.59 per cent people voted.
Election officials sealed the voting machines in the presence of polling agents after the completion of the urban local election voting. Voting machines were then loaded into vehicles with heavy police security at gunpoint in the presence of election officials and sent to the respective counting centers. Vidya Vidya voting machines were taken to 268 counting centers set up across Tamil Nadu, including 15 places in Chennai, and the room was stacked and sealed in the presence of agents and officials. Those rooms have since been guarded by gun-toting police.
Three tier police security has been put in place at each counting center. Accordingly, the police opened fire near the Strong Room where the voting machines were kept and locked, followed by the law and order police at the 2nd counting center premises and the 3rd traffic police outside the counting center. Police and Election Commission officials are monitoring the ballot box 24 hours a day through a webcam in a sealed room. For this purpose, two control rooms have been set up, one as a police control room and the other as an election officials control room. Apart from Chennai, the police are engaged in security operations led by the respective District Superintendents.
In addition, surveillance cameras have been installed at 268 polling booths across Tamil Nadu and inside and outside the counting centers 24 hours a day. Apart from Chennai, 30,000 policemen, led by the respective district superintendents, have been deployed on a rotating basis to guard the counting centers where ballot machines are kept throughout Tamil Nadu.
Under the supervision of Commissioner of Police Shankar Jiwal at the Chennai Metropolitan Police Base, additional commissioners Kannan and Senthilkumar led by Anna University, Loyola College, Pachaiyappan College, Virugambakkam Meenakshi Engineering College and Broadway Bharathi Women’s College have set up three layers of security at 11 counting centers. In addition, 4 counting centers have been set up at Tambaram and Avadi municipal police boundaries and heavy police security arrangements have been made.
About 7,000 policemen are on security duty in rotation at the counting center. The strong room where the voting machines are kept is being monitored 24 hours a day by a webcam. Similarly, a guard control room has been set up at the counting centers. Electoral officers and persons admitted as candidates are allowed inside the counting center only after the police have checked the metal detector and the identity cards. In addition, candidates’ agents are assigned a separate room for journalists.
Voting starts at 8 a.m. tomorrow. The State Election Commission is making arrangements for that. Prior postage stamps will be counted and announced. It is followed by the removal of the sealed machine seal in the presence of the candidates or candidates’ agents, followed by the counting of votes. Candidates will be notified in the presence of agents there after the completion of each round of counting. In addition, round results will be announced through a loudspeaker for the public to know. However, the lead status of the candidates will be known from 9 am.