"Counting to begin at 8 am; Postal ballots to be counted first," says Rajasthan Chief Electoral Officer

Jaipur (Rajasthan) [India], December 1 : In preparations for the election result day on December 3 in Rajasthan, State Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta said that counting will begin at 8 am and the postal ballots will be counted first.
Praveen Gupta told ANI, "Preparations have been made at all counting centres in the state. Counting for the 199 Assembly constituencies will begin at 8 am on December 3. After opening the strong room, postal ballots will be counted first; these are around 5 lakh in number. There are 1121 Assistant Returning Officers (ARO) assigned."
He further informed that the general public can also see the results on the official website of EC by visiting the ECI.gov.in website.
"A TV has been installed for the resulting trend, which will directly display the results in the media centre from the RO room and will also be shown on the ECI.gov.in website for the general public. There will be counting officials, micro observers and we will have observers in every legislative assembly under those observation, the counting of votes will be done," he said.
He further said that 175 companies in total have been deployed for security on the results day.
"As far as security is concerned, a three-tier cordon-off has been done - 40 CAPF companies have been deployed across the state. All the EVM strong rooms have been barricaded. 175 companies in total have been deployed for security," he added.
"The Commission, having considered these representations, has decided to revise the date of counting for the General Election to the Legislative Assembly of Mizoram from 3rd December 2023 (Sunday) to 4th December 2023 (Monday)," it added.
Meanwhile, the counting of votes for the Mizoram Assembly election has been rescheduled to December 4, announced the Election Commission on Friday.
"The Commission has received several representations from various quarters requesting for change in the date of counting from 3rd December 2023 (Sunday) to some other weekday, on the ground that 3rd December 2023 being Sunday a special significance for the people of Mizoram," an official statement issued by Election Commission said on Friday.
Notably, 'political party and candidate' was the most significant factor in deciding voting patterns in three of the four states that went to the polls last month, with the issue of "corruption" having varied significance among voters, according to the analysis by Today's Chanakya of its survey among voters.
Today's Chanakya said that 'development' influenced 37 per cent in Rajasthan, while 'political party and candidate' had a significance of 28 per cent.
In Rajasthan, the survey said that Congress+ got the support of 32 per cent of members from the Jat community and the BJP got 38 per cent. It said the figure was 58 per cent and 31 per cent for the SC community for Congress and BJP, respectively; 46 per cent and 36 per cent for Meena and STs, 83 per cent and seven per cent among Muslims, 26 per cent and 53 per cent among Brahmins, 29 per cent and 47 per cent among Rajputs and 28 per cent and 48 per cent among OBCs.