Sikkim: Training on election counting process begins at Soreng District

The first day of training for Counting Supervisors, Counting Assistants, and Micro Observers was held at the conference hall of RURBAN Complex Soreng, today. 

The training had two sessions accommodating a total of 134 participants.

The training saw the presence of Ms Yishey D Yongda DC-cum-DEO, Dhiraj Subedi ADC-cum-Deputy DEO, Gayas Pegha ADC (Development), Gideon Lepcha SDM (Mangalbaria), Dilip Sharma DPO Zilla-cum-State Level Master Trainer, officers and officials from various line department. 

Yishey D Yongda DC-cum-DEO opened the session by emphasizing on the importance of the training, urging all attendees to take the training seriously by paying full attention to the presentations and hands-on demo also. 

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She reiterated that although Poll day was over, the aspect of Counting was equally important and that the training sessions of all rounds was to be taken with utmost seriousness in order to avoid the minutest of mistakes. 

Dhiraj Subedi ADC (SLMT) presented a detailed PowerPoint presentation outlining legal provisions of Counting and the announcement of election results and detailed the roles and responsibilities of counting officials. He stressed on the procedures related to handling the counting of postal ballots.

The training featured a visual demonstration of various Forms and the layouts of the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) counting table and the Postal Ballot Counting Table. This provided attendees with a clear visual understanding of the setup and procedures to be followed during the counting process.

The training was further imparted by Mr. Dilip Sharma, DPO Zilla-cum-State Level Master Trainer, who elucidated the counting process for Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips. His discussion covered the procedural handling of VVPAT slips, Form 17C, duties of staff on counting table, and detailed the steps for recounting votes and unsealing of Control Units (CU), re-verification of rejected postal ballots in special case, verifying address tag unsealing ballot slip compartment which are critical in maintaining the transparency and accuracy of the vote count.