The counting of votes for municipal elections across 92 urban local bodies in Andhra Pradesh municipal elections began at 8 am on Tuesday, state election commission authorities said.
Officials estimate that the initial process of sorting and bundling ballot papers based on the votes polled in different divisions and wards will take between one and one-and-a-half hours. The high court dismissed petitions filed by YSR Congress Party candidate for Kadapa chairperson post Y S Pramila and party MP Y S Avinash Reddy, seeking a halt to the counting process. The ruling coalition is confident that its development and welfare programmes will help its candidates secure victories across the State. The YSRCP, on the other hand, is hoping to put up a strong fight in at least some municipalities and urban local bodies.
Ballot papers will first be arranged into bundles of 25 each before the actual counting begins, according to the counting procedure. Of the 13 mayoral posts in urban local bodies where elections were held, the ruling NDA alliance partners divided the contest among themselves. The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) contested in 10 municipal corporations, Jana Sena Party in two and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in one.
“The district administration in these districts expressed inability to take up counting of votes, due to disruption to normal movement and transportation of counting material.
It would be extremely difficult for the counting staff to reach their respective counting centres at the scheduled time,” state election commissioner Anil Chandra Punetha said, adding that the district authorities wanted postponement of the counting process in these two districts.
