Counting of votes begins for India's general elections
2019-05-23
Election staff members work on their computers in a vote counting center in Ahmedabad, India, May 22, 2019. [Photo/Agencies]
NEW DELHI - The counting of votes began Thursday morning for India's 17th general elections, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said.
Out of the 900 million eligible voters, 67 percent cast their ballots in over 1 million polling stations across the country.
According to the ECI sources, thousands of government officials were involved in the counting of votes stored in around 2.23 million Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Besides, around 1,600 senior government officials were monitoring the process as counting observers.
It was the first time when Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPATs) were used in an election in India in a bid to match the votes polled in the EVMs. There were a total of 1.73 million VVPATs used.
Due to the introduction of VVPATs, there may be a delay of a few hours for the final outcome of results, said a senior ECI official.
