AGARTALA, May 14 (TIWN): With counting for general elections 2014 due to start at 8am on May 16 across 36 counting centres, Chief Electoral Officer Ashutosh Jindal said nearly all trends would be in by 11am and the final results known by 5 pm.

Speaking to TIWN at secretariat today morning, he stated that though actual counting of ballots gets underway only at 8am, the preparatory process will start as early as 5am, when the district election officer and observers assemble for randomization of counting officials. This may be done either manually or by using a computer. The posting of counting supervisors and counting assistants is done randomly so that they come to know of the assembly constituency or table assigned to them only upon arrival at the counting centre. 

At 8am, counting will start, with postal ballots being counted first. Counting of votes on EVM ballot units may begin half-an-hour after the counting for postal ballots starts. The returning officer is responsible for the table relating to postal ballots said Mr. Jindal 

Before counting, the seals on the control unit must be duly checked. Once the seals are found in order, the ballot unit is switched on and the results button pressed. This brings up details such as number of candidates, total votes cast and distribution of votes among the candidates as well as NOTA option on the display panel of the EVM he added. 

The CEO stated counting of votes in Tripura  will be done at 13 venues at 36  counting centres where more than 4,000 security personnel drawn from Tripura Police and seven companies of a paramilitary force will be on duty.

A total of 3,190 electronic voting machines (EVM) have been under guard since balloting took place April 7 and 12. A total of 25 candidates,  contested the two Lok Sabha seats in . An estimated 3,000 officials will be involved in the counting process. The paramilitary staff will be deployed inside the counting centres while Tripura Police will keep a watch outside.