About 100 results are expected by Wednesday evening, chief election commissioner MS Gill said at a press conference here on Tuesday. He added that in the 1998 polls it had taken two days for the results to filter in, but the commission hopes to do better this time. Counting of votes will begin at 8 o'clock Wednesday morning and continue unabated till the process is over.

Central election observers have been asked to take the first available flight to Delhi to bring in copies of certificates of winning candidates duly signed by the returning officers to enable the commission to finalise the list, Gill said. October 8 and 9 have been reserved for that purpose.

He said the new government has to be formed and accession of the 13th Lok Sabha called by the deadline of October 20 as laid down by the constitution. The results from 45 constituencies across the country which voted through electronic voting machines are expected by 14:00 hours on Wednesday.

In his opening remarks, Gill said the provisional turnout worked out by the commission for the Lok Sabha elections is 58.3 per cent against 62 per cent in 1998, 58 per cent in 1996 and 56.7 per cent in 1991. The 62-crore electorate in the just concluded polls comprised 33.5 crore men and 29.5 crore women.

According to Gill, the number of violent incidents in the recent polls at 924 with 138 deaths against 1,541 such incidents and 251 deaths in 1998 and 1,209 incidents and 313 deaths in 1996.

The deaths in the just concluded elections were mainly because of landmine-blasts and insurgency-related problems, Gill said. Out of 138 dead, 74 were security personnel.

The chief election commissioner said that the model code of conduct was "broadly" observed by all parties quite satisfactorily. He, however, expressed concern that the participation of women is not increasing despite all efforts. In the recent polls, only 277 women candidates were in the fray out of a total of 4,648 contestants despite all the talk about 33 per cent reservation for them in the Lok Sabha and the state legislatures.

In 1998, there were 274 women candidates, in 1996 there were 599 and in 1991 the figure was 324.

Gill described as "worrying" the trend noticed during the conduct of the 1999 Lok Sabha and assembly polls of a large number of cases relating to the election process filed in various high courts. Expressing concern over the trend, Gill said the commission had good reason to be worried about this.

"Unfortunately for the first time, apart from the huge work relating to conduct of polls, we also had to deal with, to a considerable extent, legal challenges posed by court cases," said Gill. Asserting that article 329(B) of the Consitution had been wisely introduced by Jawaharlal Nehru and B R Ambedkar to prevent disruption of poll process by court cases, the CEC said that this year despite limited staff and resources the commission had to send its representatives to various high courts where cases had been filed.