THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Counting of Lok Sabha election votes will begin on May 23 at 8 a.m. The final result will be out by 1 p.m. But, the official announcement will be at 10 p.m. as VVPAT slips have to be counted.

VVPAT slips at five booths in each Assembly constituency will be counted. This will take around five hours. VVPAT machines will be selected by the returning officer through a lot. The slips of all five VVPAT machines won’t be counted together; only one by one. Experts will be assigned for this. As there is a margin for error, the counting will be repeated three times. If there is a difference between the count in VVPAT machine and EVM, the VVPAT votes will be taken into consideration.

Postal votes received till 8 am will be counted.

Armed police and CRPF will be deployed at counting centers. Only candidates, counting agents, officials and media are allowed to enter.

Live results will be available in EC’s Suvidha site and NIC’s trend site. There will be 140 counting centers at 29 places with 14 tables in each center. One table will be for postal votes. It will take 45 minutes to complete one round of counting. The first trend will be around 9 in the morning.