Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Electoral Officer, Teeka Ram Meena said that the official results of the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala will be declared only after 8 pm on May 23.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, Meena said that there would be 29 counting locations, including postal ballots and EVMs. He said that the counting will first begin at 8:30 am at locations with postal ballot counters, after which counting would move onto other locations with EVMs.

According to new rules in counting, 6 VVPAT machines will be counted in every constituency. “This will be taken up only after the entire EVMs and postal ballots are counted. We expect counting of these VVPATs in around 6 hours and the final results in each of the 20 constituencies could be officially declared after 8 pm”, Teeka Ram Meena said.

Meena also added that 14 rounds of counting would take place in each constituency and that in locations with postal ballot counting centres, that after the 12thround of counting EVMs, the 13th round would start only after all the postal ballots would be counted.

He also stated that if the VVPAT machine count and the EVM count doesn’t match, the figure on the VVPAT would be taken into consideration.