CHENNAI: The poll process for the Assembly elections in the State was set in motion with the filing of nominations beginning on Thursday.

On the first day, 81 candidates filed their nominations, including former Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Ministers Durai Murugan at Katpadi, K.Pitchandy at Tiruvannamalai and K.Ponmudi from Villupuram. In Chennai, DMK candidate D.Napolean submitted papers for the Mylapore constituency.

The last date for filing of papers is April 20, according to a press release from the Chief Electoral Officer.

Only about 7,200 applications were received for online registration of voters. This represented a negligible share of the total number of applications received for inclusion in voter rolls during the period of filing of claims and objections in January-February this year. (Totally, 19 lakh applications were received of which 13.76 lakh applications were accepted).

The silver lining in the online voter registration is that most applicants were genuine and the rate of rejection of applications was less compared to the conventional method , say official sources. Approximately, 85 per cent of the applications were accepted, said the sources.

On the Internet, prospective voters sent their applications, which were received at the district headquarters. As the applications did not have signatures, officials visited the voters for obtaining them. Verification followed. Last year, the facility of online registration was introduced in select areas and this time it was extended to the entire State.

Highest in Chennai

A perusal of the district-wise break-up of the receipt of the applications for online registration reveals that Chennai had the highest number of applications — 2,100. Kancheepuram came next with 1,350 applications and Tiruvallur 799.

As for those districts that comprised municipal corporations other than Chennai, there were 638 applications from Coimbatore; 216 from Madurai; 133 from Tiruchi; 124 from Salem and 93 from Tirunelveli. Cuddalore and Erode received 220 applications each.

The lowest number of applications was 9 in Perambalur, Tiruvarur 14 and Ramanathapuram 25.

Economic conditions and Internet penetration were among the chief factors responsible for the poor response to the online registration. A senior Election Commission official hopes the response will get better with the increasing use of the Net.

In 1999, on the day of results of Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission website received about 2 crore hits. This year, when the Bihar Assembly election results were out, the number of hits was about five crore, he said.

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