Bengaluru/Mangaluru: Counting of votes in connection with the recently held MLC polls began at 8 am in 20 centres across Karnataka on Wednesday December 30.
The counting of votes will be a complex procedure because of the preferential voting system. According to Deputy Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka V Raghavendra, the entire process will be video recorded to ensure transparency.
He said that results from smaller constituencies like Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru with less than 2,000 votes each, will be out early while the results in larger constituencies such as Vijayapura and Belagavi with around 8,000 voters will consume longer time. Results of other constituencies will come anytime depending on the type of contest and the number of ballot papers. But all the results will be out by evening.
The candidates, who secure 50 per cent votes plus one vote, will be declared as victorious. However, if nobody secures the majority votes in the first preference round, then counting is furthered to second, third or more number of rounds.
There are altogether 125 candidates, including 60 independent candidates in the fray.
Dakshina Kannada-Udupi constituency
Counting for the Udupi-Dakshina Kannada constituency is being held at at Victoria Girls’ Composite PU College, Ladyhill. Ballot boxes were being brought out from the strong room at 7.30 am in the presence of representatives of the contestants.
DC AB Ibrahim had earlier informed that the ballot papers will be made into a bundle of 25 each and then they will be put in a drum where they will be mixed (as bundles) and sent to the 14 counting tables. The actual counting is scheduled to begin at around 11 am and the result will be out by 6 pm. There will be 29 rounds of counting.
They are eight contestants in this constituency. They are Kota Srinivasa Poojary (BJP), Pratapchandra Shetty (Congress), S Prakash Shetty (JDS), and independent candidates Jayaprakash Hegde, Harikrishna Bantwal, Praveen Chandra Jain, Alphonso Franko and Ismail Doddamane.
