The gruelling wait for more than a month for many a candidate will end with counting of votes for the 14th Bihar Assembly starting on Tuesday.
Since electronic voting machines were used in all polling booths, the counting exercise for a constituency would hardly take two hours and the first set of results would be expected by 1100 hours Tuesday morning, Chief Electoral Officer of Bihar, N K Sinha said.
"We have chalked out the plan in such a manner so that all results of polling in 243 constituencies are declared by Tuesday evening," he added.
Chief Secretary G S Kang said Central Para Military Forces personnel were guarding the EVMs, stored in 41 counting centres and securitymen in adequate strength would be deployed inside and outside the counting centres to ensure its conduct in an orderly and peaceful manner.
The polling for the first lap of the first phase in the staggered Assembly election was held in 57 constituencies on October 18, followed by four constituencies in the second lap on October 21.
Polling for the second phase was also held in two laps, involving 62 constituencies in the first lap and seven in the seond on October 26 and 29 respectively. The third phase polling was divided into rounds of 57 and 15 constituencies, held on November 13 and 16 respectively.
The postponement of polling in an increasing number of constituencies in the first three phases was attributed to non-availability of CPMF in adequate strength to man all polling stations.
The staggered election, which turned virtually into a seven-phase affair, witnessed a low turnout of voters with polling remaining at 48 percent of the 5.04 crore electorate.
Keeping in view the past records of poll violence in Bihar, the state administration, at the behest of the Election Commission, pooled all its resources to ensure free and fair polls.
This proved to have been successful, since only two deaths in violence were reported this time, as against 86 casulaties in 1990 Assembly polls, followed by 54 in 1995 and 61 in 2000.
A total of 2094 candidates were in the electoral race for 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly. Although tall promises were madeon issues like development and progress, caste affiliations ruled the roost.
