Assembly elections: Counting of votes to begin at 8 am

Thiruvananthapuram: The counting of votes polled in the Kerala Assembly elections held on Monday will begin at 8 am on Thursday.

The first results will be available after about two hours. However, leads will be available from 8.15 am. The first votes to be counted are the postal votes.

The counting is taking place in 80 counting centres spread across the State.  Each constituency have 130 to 150 polling booths and counting of votes from each booth will take about ten minutes each.

The Election Commission has made arrangements for dissemination of information on the counting through official Website trend.kerala.gov.in and through the Public Relations Department. The Department has developed a mobile application for the purpose.

Meanwhile, the conduct of CPI (M) during polling has come in for criticism over blocking a booth agent of BJP from leaving the booth at the close of polling at Neeleswaram in Kasaragod district and getting an undertaking from him that he would not carry on with political activities in the area. An accusing finger has also been raised against CPI (M) for bogus voting in Dharmadam, where CPI (M) leader Pinarai Vijayan is contesting. The police have registered cases in both cases.

The Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that the bogus voting in Dharmadam, shocked Kerala.