ja_mageia

When the ballots from each sub-district arrived, the ballot papers were counted and 500 of these were put in a plastic bag.

The plastic bags with the ballot papers were placed safely in this cage guarded by security.

At the same time, 150 tables, each with a board was being set up for the people to count the votes.

This is the control center in the PAO building. Here there are live feeds from each of the districts where the counting was taking place. Results came into this control center.

The people in pink shirts are the counters. They are being watched by independent observers.

Once the ballot papers had been sorted into plastic bags, two representatives from each table came to collect one bag of ballot papers.

As they left, they had to carry the plastic bag high. They collected three basket and a large chart to write down the results of the votes.

They went back to their table escorted by at least one independent observer.

At their table they prepared the baskets and the chart. All the time the person with the ballots had to hold it up high.

As soon as each of the 150 tables had received one plastic bag of 500 votes, the cage was locked.

Counting of the votes then started all at the same time. The number of the winning candidate was read out loud and shown to the independent observers.

A score was then written on the chart on the board.

Once they had finished counting the 500 ballots in their plastic bag, two representatives from that table came back to deliver the counted ballots and the chart with the vote tally.

Once that was done, they collected another bag with 500 ballots and headed back to their table to start the next round of counting.

Counting like this went on until the early hours of Monday morning.