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Assembly poll results should be out by Saturday midnight

Counting of votes polled for the assembly elections in four states on November 25 will be taken up tomorrow at 0800 hours, and most of the results are likely to be declared by midnight.

Counting for 12 assembly by-elections held in Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal and one Lok Sabha by-election from Bharuch (Gujarat) will be taken up at the same time.

The exercise will be conducted amid tight security. The results of 16 constituencies where electronic voting machines were used will also be declared tomorrow during the day, earlier than in the other constituencies. Six of these constituencies are in Delhi and five each in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

In Delhi, contrary to popular perception, results from six assembly constituencies where electronic voting machines were used during Wednesday's polling are likely to come in only by afternoon tomorrow while for the rest, the fate of the candidates would start unfolding by late night.

The counting of votes for 69 constituencies which went to the polls would be taken up at 11 centres at 0800 hrs tomorrow amid tight security. The actual counting would start only around 1700 hours, as the larger part of the day would be devoted to mixing of ballot papers.

Polling was postponed in Nangloi Jat constituency following the killing of the Samata Party candidate.

State election office sources dispelled the notion that results from the EVMs would be out with the press of a button.

''We have constraints of space and only six polling stations from each of these constituencies will be taken up in one round. With an average of 100 polling stations in a constituency, it will require about 16 rounds to complete the process. Also, every counting agent will have to be allowed about ten seconds to take note of each entry,'' the sources explained.

The constituencies where EVMs were used are Gole Market, Minto Road, Kasturba Nagar, Sarojini Nagar, Delhi Cantt and Jangpura.

In Rajasthan, counting of votes in the 197 constituencies will begin tomorrow morning amid tight security at the respective district headquarters.

An election office spokesperson said counting would begin at 0800 hrs in 34 counting centres and continue without a break till completion and announcement of the results.

He said more than 4,500 counting tables would be set up.

Electronic voting machines were used in the Johri Bazar, Kishanpol and Hawa Mahal assembly segments of Jaipur City and Ajmer East and Ajmer West constituencies of Ajmer district in Rajasthan.

The spokesperson said the results for the remaining seats were likely to be available by late night tomorrow or early Sunday morning.

Polling was held on Wednesday in 197 constituencies for constituting the eleventh state assembly. Elections in Mundwa (Nagaur), Kumbhalgarh and Bhim (Rajsamand) had been countermanded following the death of three candidates belonging to recognised political parties.

As per the polling percentage figures released by the state election office, a total of 63.35 per cent of the 29.6 million voters had exercised their franchise on Wednesday.

UNI

Assembly Election '98

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