Repolling in nine booths across five districts today

A notification from the TNSEC said that the repolling in these booths will commence at 7 am on Wednesday. Ballot boxes will be moved to the strong room tonight and the counting of votes will be taken up on Thursday, TNSEC sources said.

Meanwhile, AIADMK leaders Edappadi K Palaniswami and O Panneerselvam in a letter urged the party cadre and the party functionaries to be cautious at the counting stations. The DMK will try to do mischief at the time of counting and the party workers should be careful when the votes are counted. District secretaries and party chief polling agents should report to the counting station by 6 am and ensure that there is no foul play at the counting stations, the letter said.

Except the recently carved out nine districts, the rural local bodies in 27 districts of Tamil Nadu have witnessed elections. Through the elections, TNSEC will fill the 91,975 local body posts. Ballot voting system will be followed in grama panchayat elections and four types of coloured ballot papers were used. A total of 49,688 polling booths were operated and around 45,000 police personnel will be used to ensure free and fair counting.

The votes will be counted on January 2 and the results will be announced the same day. As per the poll schedule winners will assume office on January 6 and the indirect elections to president posts will be held on January 11 from 7 am to 5 pm, TNSEC sources said.

Meanwhile, the TNSEC is likely to commence the work for the polls in urban local bodies by January. The state has 121 municipalities and 15 municipal corporations. Eight corporations will soon have women mayors and 61 municipalities will have women chairpersons to head the local bodies. Most of the municipal areas with reserve forests as boundaries has been reserved for tribes and scheduled castes. Gudalur in The Nilgiris district has been reserved for scheduled tribes (women) while Valparai, Udhagamandalam, Coonor, Sankarankoil, Peranampet, Ranipet, Sirkazhi, Thiruthuraipoondi and Perambalur municipalities have been reserved for scheduled castes (women).

Poll officials have also begun investigations on local body posts being auctioned ahead of civic polls. Auction allegations by villagers have surfaced from Tiruchy, Thanjavur, Cuddalore, Pudukkottai, Ramanathapuram and Krishnagiri districts.