New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS): Allaying fears of being identified, the Congress Central Election Authority (CEA) Chairman on Wednesday assured the voters on the secrecy of the ballot in the October 17 party presidential poll.

While issuing standard protocol for the voting till the counting of the votes, Madhusudan Mistry said that there is no numbering on the papers and only counterfoil with detail will be kept with the Election Authority while ballot boxes will be sealed and unsealed in front of election agents. Ahead of counting of votes, all the ballot papers will be mixed so that no one would know how many votes the candidate got from a particular state.

He said that they have received a complaint that has been addressed by the CEA. In fray for the top post are Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge. Sixty-seven booths have been set up in all the states, the party's CEA has said.

Madhusudan Mistry, Chairman of the CEA, said, "In AICC also there will be a booth, especially for all senior leaders, working committee members and all those whose identity card is from a different state but are staying in Delhi. If they write to us that they want to vote in Delhi then we will make arrangements here as well, they can also vote here in AICC."

A camp booth will be set up for Rahul Gandhi and others who are participating in the Bharat Jodo Yatra."So the process of campaigning for these candidates starts from Saturday onwards, officially, although they have already started the campaign earlier. Technically, according to the constitution, we have to provide them with a seven-day withdrawal period.

"The election will take place on October 17 in every state capital between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The voting will be held under a secret ballot. All the ballet boxes will be brought to the AICC headquarters. On October 19, the counting of votes will start and the result will be declared as soon as the counting gets over.