Bhubaneswar: Amidst the preparation for the vote counting of the elections 2019, the VVPATs will be counted for the first time in Odisha, informed Chief Electoral Officer Surendra Kumar here today.

"The VVPATs will be counted for the first time and the counting will take a bit longer time," Kumar told media.

The decision has been made on directive from the Supreme Court and Election Commission of India (ECI) to follow transparency in vote counting after the general elections.

"As per the directive by the Supreme Court, the ECI has ordered to select five booths on random basis and the VVPATs will be counted there on sequential basis, not concurrently or in parallel manner. That means, the counting of a VVPAT will be conducted after ending the counting of another machine and putting it in the strong room. As it will be done sequentially, the counting will take a bit longer time," he said.

"If the ECI further directs for VVPAT counting at other booths, we will follow the same rule by counting the machines sequentially," the CEO said adding that there is no question for parallel counting and the window will be long.

Further, in view of the prevailing heat wave conditions during the scorching summer of May, the voting counting centres will have Air Conditioners (ACs).

"The ACs will be installed in the rooms to avoid exhaustion during counting", Kumar said.