The Election Commission convened a press conference at 1:30 pm today elaborating on the current scenario in Bihar, special measures undertaken to ensure safety while counting votes and predicting the time that shall be required to complete the counting process.
The Election Commission has assured of a glitch free counting process and has not received any complaints so far. 25 percent polling is already counted numbering slightly more than 1 crore. There was 57.9 percent polling noted with 7.3 crore electors. There was a 63 percent increase in polling booths from 65,000 to approximately 1.06 lakh booths. Counting was conducted over 55 locations up from 35 earlier, and following the COVID-19 restrictions the number of tables in per counting hall were brought down to 14. The rounds depend on the number of polling booths and the number ranges from lowest of 19 to highest of 51 in different ACs in Bihar. According to the rules, postal ballot shall be considered valid only if received till 8 am on 10 November,2020 and Bihar witnessed an increase in number of postal ballots as more and more people opted for it, considering the COVID-19 scenario.
Counting is expected to be completed by tonight and the Election Commission assured that they had stepped up the online security systems to ensure no successful hacking attempts and a secure counting process.