Volte-face: No videography of counting now
Saturday, 03/03/2012
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2012/20120303/punjab.htm#8
The experiment of videographing the Punjab assembly poll that was to be seen on March 6 has failed to take off due to technical glitches. Now, the Election Commission would go ahead with the process without cameras.
Earlier, the Election Commission had directed the Chief Electoral Officer of Punjab to videograph each and every counting table in all the 117 centres across the state. The decision followed after the CEOs of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand wrote to the EC about the problems they were facing in setting up the system.
“We wrote to the EC that there was a network of wires in the counting centres. We were not able to record the process due to a technical problem. So, the EC has decided to do away with it,” said Kusumjit Sidhu, CEO, Punjab.
The CEO has now passed instructions to the returning officers in accordance with the EC orders.
“We were working for the last 10 days to set up equipment for videography. We organised meetings with engineers also. But somehow, the CEO office was not getting the desired results,” said an employee of the CEO office who was involved in the process.
The counting would take place on March 6 from 8 a.m. onwards across all the 117 centres simultaneously. It was for the first time in the state that the process was to be video-graphed. Since every counting centre would be having 12 to 14 tables each, handling as many cameras in a single room became a bit difficult.
The EC has directed the CEO to ensure that in case a counting agent desires to have the result displayed on an EVM more than once, it should be done by counting supervisor to the satisfaction of the counting agents. The postal ballots reaching a counting centre before 8 a.m. would be counted as polled votes.
