Pune: Citizens faced a hard time submitting voter registration forms online on Saturday, the last day of the enrolment drive ahead of the Nov 20 assembly election. A section of citizens complained of ‘captcha code' not loading to proceed with the registration. Members of the National Society of Clean Cities (NSCC), a citizens' group actively involved in the process, said several people claimed that their applications were rejected without any explanation earlier in the day, forcing them to visit election offices.
"Many citizens couldn't view the captcha code to proceed with the registration, while others struggled to locate electoral registration officers for assistance," NSCC representative Rohan Desai told TOI. The technical issues were particularly concerning as people had only four days to register as voters after the election schedule was announced on Oct 15. People were allowed to register till 10 days before the last date of nomination (Oct 29).
Many voters were also on tenterhooks as they had received no intimation on their forms being accepted. "In case of form rejection, election officials told us to refill the form as the electoral registration officer (ERO) might not have found the documents satisfactory," said an NSCC member. The technical team of the election office said that there were no issues with the online portal.
"People may have faced issues at the time of registration owing to the heavy rush on the last day," a senior official from the state election .