EVMs are well guarded and kept safely: CEO Sanjiv Kumar

Bengaluru: Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar said that the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM)s in Karnataka are well guarded and kept safely, seeking to allay concerns over their safety.

Addressing presspersons on Tuesday, May 21 Sanjiv said, “As you know EVMs are guarded with multi-layer protection. So in the inner layer…core layer, we have got Central Paramilitary Forces. So, three sections of CPF are made available in each place where EVMs are stored and then the outer cordon is by the district police. So, it is all very safe.”

Further, all contesting candidates have been allowed to put their watch and ward also, he said, adding that volunteers of the candidates have been visiting the place and verifying what has been going on there. The CEO said he does not think there is such distress in any place and asserted that the EVMs and VVPATs are being guarded very safely.

Asked by what time the final results would be out, Kumar said the first set of results may start from 3 PM and may be finished by 6 PM. However, it can delay further too.

“There can be some delay, but that does not mean there will be very much delay, because generally, we are starting our results from 12 PM.

But here, because four hours additional time will be required (for VVPAT counting), maybe from 3 PM onwards, we expect our results between 3 PM to 6 PM,” Kumar added.

The CEO said a delay beyond 6 PM would take place if someone demanded the election results be recounted. In addition to it, more number of postal ballots, as well as Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballots System (ETPBS), will also delay the final results, Kumar said.

So far, 98,606 postal ballots have been received said Kumar, adding that 25,769 were from service voters and 24,846 from special messengers from facilitation centres. The remaining arrived through post.

Regarding preparations, Kumar said that 28 Returning Officers, about 438 Assistant Returning Officers and 180 Aditional Returning Officers would be deployed across 28 constituencies. There will be 3,224 tables arranged for counting and there will be 4,215 rounds. The Chief Electoral Officer 3,682 counting supervisors, 3,707 counting assistants and3,738 micro observers have been deployed.