Staff Reporter
Guwahati: Following a directive from the Election Commission of India (ECI), Assam is now gearing up for the counting day of votes on May 4. The state Election Department expects the results to be out by late evening.
Polling for the general election to the Assam Legislative Assembly 2026 was held on April 9 in a peaceful manner.
Addressing a press conference here today, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Assam, Anurag Goel, said that the counting will start at 8 a.m. at 40 counting centres across the state. “Already the ECI has deputed 126 counting observers for Assam on the counting day. They are expected to arrive at their respective counting centres on May 1 and 2. All the observers are IAS officers from outside the state. Additionally, there will be 2,348 counting micro-observers on the counting day. The micro-observers are all central government employees. A total of 5,981 counting officials will be deputed on the counting day. We are expecting that the final results will be declared by late evening of May 4,” Goel said.
CEO Anurag Goel described it as a historic election. The single-phase poll witnessed a huge turnout and was conducted in a conducive atmosphere, with the active participation of all stakeholders, he stated.
The Assam CEO further stated that, after the declaration of the results, winning candidates will be allowed to take out victory processions, but they have to be regulated and restricted. He said, “We’ll issue instructions to all district administrations regarding the victory processions.”
A total of 25 Central Armed Police Forces’ (CAPF) companies (COYs) have been deployed in the innermost cordon of strong rooms and counting centres. Additionally, 13 companies of CAPF and 1 platoon of State Armed Police (SAP) are deployed as the second cordon in Strong Rooms. Moreover, 800 unarmed police personnel are deployed in Strong Room locations.
At present, the security forces available for the counting day are 2 COYs of CRPF engaged in static duty and 93 COYs of Assam SAP already deployed in districts as well as 85 Assault Groups (AGs)/Commandos.
In the recently held election, the total number of voters was 2,50,54,463 and a final turnout of 85.91% was recorded. There were 722 candidates in the poll fray.
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