NEW DELHI, May 22 - The counting of votes for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, in which over 8,000 candidates were in the fray for 542 seats, will begin at 8.00 am tomorrow and the results are expected only by late evening due to tallying of voter verified paper audit trail slips with EVM count for the first time.
Over 67 per cent of the 90.99 crore electors had cast their vote in the seven-phase elections. This is the highest ever voter turnout in Indian parliamentarian elections.
This is for the first time in a Lok Sabha election that results of voting machines will be matched with slips generated by paper trail machines.
The exercise will take place in five polling stations per Assembly segment, which effectively means that out of nearly 10.3 lakh polling stations, the EVM-VVPAT matching will take place in 20,600 such stations.
The entire matching exercise will take an additional four to five hours.
The Election Commission (EC) is yet to provide the number of counting centres being set up for Thursday, saying the data is not centrally available.
Out of 18 lakh registered voters, 16.49 lakh have sent their postal ballots to their respective returning officers as on May 17.
Out of the 543 Lok Sabha seats, elections were held in 542 constituencies as the EC had cancelled polls to the Vellore constituency on the grounds of excessive use of money power.
The poll panel is yet to announce a fresh date for elections in Vellore. � PTI
