Counting of votes for 224 assembly constituencies in Karnataka began at 0800 hours on Sunday.

Live Coverage: Battleground Karnataka

The fate of nearly 1,600 candidates, who contested the polls in the three-phase election, will be known and if there is a clear verdict, the people of Karnataka, who have been governed by the Rule of the President for the past six months, will know which party will rule the state by Sunday itself.

Tight security has been imposed all across the state to ensure that the counting process goes off smoothly. The counting of votes will be a hi-tech affair this time as a Web based technology will be used to assist the process of counting of votes.

Chief Electoral Officer M N Vidyashankar said that the software Genesys, which is supported by the National Informatics Centre, will facilitate online counting of votes. The officer also said that for the first time in the country they would try and declare the result of the election in real time.

The information regarding the results would flash at the information centre in Bengaluru as the returning officer declares the results. All the 48 counting centres in the state have been networked through a local area network, which in turn is linked to the statewide network area. There will be no gap between the generation and dissemination of information, the CEO also says.

Vidyashankar said that the first trends will be available by 10.30 am in which counting of around 10,000 votes will be involved. The final results will be out by 3 pm, he added. The CEOs office is also working on providing the results in real time on their official Web site www.ceokarnataka.nic.in