New Delhi, Jul 20 (DHNS): The counting of votes for the Presidential election will begin at 11 am on Thursday and the result is expected to be announced by 5 pm. Ballot boxes from 29 state capitals and the Union Territory of Puducherry reached Parliament House over the last two days amid tight security.

“The ballot boxes were brought by air. Each ballot box travelled as a business class passenger,” Lok Sabha Secretary General Anoop Mishra told DH. He said special vehicles drove up to the tarmac to ferry the ballot boxes and accompanying officials directly to Parliament House.

“The last ballot box to reach was from Nagaland. It was brought here at 9.40 pm on Tuesday,” Mishra said, adding that counting of votes will begin simultaneously at four tables.
The seals will be opened in the presence of representatives of the two candidates - NDA’s Ram Nath Kovind and the Opposition’s Meira Kumar.

As many as 54 MPs have voted in nine different state capitals, four MLAs have exercised their franchise in Parliament House and four other MLAs cast their votes in capitals of other states.
The 54 votes of MPs will first be taken out from ballot boxes of the nine state capitals where they had voted. These votes will be added to the ballot box of Parliament. Similarly, the votes of MLAs, who have voted outside their states, will be added to the ballot boxes of their respective states after which the counting process would begin.

The Parliament ballot box will be opened first for counting, this will be followed by boxes from states in alphabetical order. The total strength of the electoral college is 10,98,903 votes, with each Parliamentarian carrying a vote value of 708. The vote value of an MLA is calculated on the basis of the population of the state he/she represents.

The vote value of a legislator from Karnataka in 131. To win, a candidate needs 50%-plus-one votes, which translates to 5,49,452 votes. The electoral arithmetic favours Kovind who has support of more than 63% of the voters.