Counting of VVPAT slips will delay LS poll results by three hours : CEO

Bengaluru: State Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar informed that the Lok Sabha election results are likely to delayed by three hours. Addressing presspersons here he said that after the Supreme Court made it mandatory to count VVPAT slips in at least five booths per Assembly segment, it is likely to delay the Lok Sabha election results by three hours. He further added, ” it would require an additional 5,000 staff too. All put together, there would be around 3 lakh personnel on election duty.” Speaking on HK Patil’s statement that the Union government was misusing all constitutional bodies and the Election Commission was going soft on them, Sanjiv Kumar said that as a constitutional body, they could not comment on the issue. Karnataka will go to polls in two phases, 14 constituencies each, on April 18 and 23. The total number of polling stations in the state stands at 58,186. Officials said 30,164 polling stations come under the first phase, while 28,022 in the second. Source: Udayavani