ALL SET FOR GWMC COUNTING AMID STRICT COVID-19 PROTOCOL

The fate of 502 candidates in the fray for the 66 divisions of the Greater Warangal Municipal Corporation (GWMC) will be decided within a few hours. The Delhi Public School at Rampur, located on the suburbs of the city, is all spruced up for the counting of votes polled in the election to the GWMC on April 30.

There was a sudden spike in the Coronavirus cases which has thrown a challenge to the election commission to ensure the completion of the entire process in accordance with the Covid-19 protocol.

All the officials, candidates, polling agents who wish to be present inside the counting centres were asked to undergo tests and obtain a certificate that they are negative for coronavirus. To ensure a smooth process of counting, the authorities divided 66 Divisions of the urban local body (ULB) into three blocks. Each division will have two tables and the counting will be booth-wise. One thousand votes will be counted in each round. The authorities will allow two counting agents, two staff and a supervisor. The officials were to count the postal ballots first, before opening the ballot boxes. Each bundle to have 25 votes.

The number of votes polled in the election was 3,63,573 with a poll percentage of

54.74. The number of voters in the GWMC limits is

6,64,188. Warangal Urban district collector, Rajeev Gandhi Hanumanthu along with municipal commissioner, Pamela Satpathy officiating the counting process said that they have made fool-proof arrangements.