DDC elections: Counting of votes to be held today
Election results would be accessed online dynamically: SEC
Srinagar: The fate of nearly 4,200 candidates for the 280 District Development Council (DDC) seats in Jammu and Kashmir will be decided on Tuesday, as counting of votes will begin for the eight-phase polls held for the first time in the union territory.
Officials in the State Election Commission said a total of 4,181 candidates, including over 450 women, were in the fray for the the 280 DDC seats.
The elections to this third tier of the Panchayati Raj system were held for the first time in Jammu and Kashmir and were the first mass polls after the abrogation of provisions of Article 370 in August 2019.
The polling was held over eight phases beginning November 28 and ending on December 19 as 51 per cent of the 57 lakh eligible voters exercised their franchise in the elections, which were largely peaceful.
Seven Kashmir-centric mainstream political parties, including the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, contested the polls in an alliance under the banner of the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) formed for restoration of Article 370.
The Congress was initially a part of the PAGD but distanced itself from the alliance as the BJP targeted the opposition party for being in league with the ‘Gupkar Gang’.
Although, the Congress went alone in the last seven phases, it is widely believed that its understanding with the PAGD remains intact.
The PAGD is expected to emerge as the single largest grouping at the hustings on Tuesday, followed by the BJP in a close second position while the Congress is expected to fill the third position.
Meanwhile, all necessary arrangements have been made for counting of votes, which will begin at 9 am in all 20 districts of the union territory.
State Election Commissioner K K Sharma on Sunday reviewed preparations and other arrangements for the counting process.
“The Returning Officers will be incharge of the counting process for each DDC constituency. The entire counting exercise will be monitored and recorded to achieve full transparency,” Sharma said.
He said counting of ballot papers would be taken up on a round-wise basis after proper mixing of ballot papers from different polling stations as per the prescribed procedure and counting guidelines.
On the implementation of necessary COVID-19 protocols, Sharma said directions have already been issued to concerned deputy commissioners to adhere to coronavirus standard operating procedures (SOPs) during the counting process.
Sharma said that the election results would be accessed online dynamically.
Briefing the media about the availability of election results on a website: http://ceojk.nic.in, the SEC stated that the State Election Authority would facilitate people and media alike to access election results and trends on a dynamic basis.
He said that soon after the randomization and time-tested protocols the ballot boxes would be opened and ballot papers would be mixed subsequently for counting and added the updated information would be given to the people on the website.
The SEC added that tomorrow’s counting would decide the fate of 2178 candidates for 280 DDC seats and counting would begin at 9 am.
He also informed that the overall voting percentage in all eight phases across the Union Territory is 51.42 percent and tomorrow over thirty lakh votes would be counted at counting centres.
While giving a demonstration, Secretary State Election Commission, Anil Salgotra briefed the media persons about the functioning of the website. He said that people along with the media would be able to have access to the counting trends, final results and party-wise trends for all 280 DDC constituencies.
He added that the website can also be accessed for trends with respect to particular constituency in a given district and particular party, besides the information for top two leading candidates and the overall votes polled for all the candidates can also be accessed.
