Guwahati, Mar 10: The election process for the first phase of polls in Asom began with the issuing of the notification by the Election Commission today (Mar 10, 2006).

In all, 65 legislative assembly constituencies, out of a total of 126 would go to polls in the first phase on April 3.

The second notification would be issued on March 17 for the remaining 61 constituencies which would go to polls on April 10.

A total of 1.74 crore voters would excercise their franchise in 18716 polling stations in the elections this time.

In the first phase, a total of 92,07,320 voters would cast their votes in 9719 polling stations in the state, state election office sources here said.

The last date for filing nominations for the first phase elections in 65 contituencies has been fixed on March 17.

The nominations would be scrutinised next day, while the last date for the withdrawal of nominations has been fixed on March 23, the sources said.

The state Election Commission has identified 6,000 polling stations as 'sensitive' and 3512 as 'hyper sensitive' in th state.

Extensive videography would be done in all these sensitive and hyper sensitive stations and sufficient security personnel would be deployed outside these polling booths to ensure free and fair polls, the sources said.

Polling staff would not be allowed to man the polling stations in their home constituencies this time, the source said adding that polling staff would come to know the polling stations they would be posted to, while on their way.

The state Election Commission had set up a helpline at Dispur to enable lodging of complaints directly to the Commission.

UNI