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Bihar Election: Vote Count Likely To End Late Tonight, Election Commission Says

Over 1 crore votes out of the nearly 4.16 crore votes polled were counted till around 1.30 p.m.

Voters exercising their franchise in the Bihar assembly election. (Source: Election Commission's Official Twitter Handle)
Voters exercising their franchise in the Bihar assembly election. (Source: Election Commission's Official Twitter Handle)

Counting of votes for the Bihar assembly elections will take longer than usual and continue till late in the night because of 63% increase in the number of EVMs, the Election Commission said.

Briefing reporters in the national capital as the counting progressed in Bihar, Election Commission officials said over 1 crore votes were counted till around 1.30 p.m. out of nearly 4.16 crore votes polled in the three-phase elections.

The official said the counting has been "glitch-free" so far.

To ensure social distancing norms put in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Commission had increased the number of polling stations from nearly 65,000 in the 2015 assembly polls to 1.06 lakh. This meant an increase in the number of electronic voting machines as well.