Bangalore: Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna today (Apr 25, 2004) appealed to the Election Commission to consider bringing down the "waiting period" between the polling and counting as the present 17-day period was " agonising".

"This is another area the Election Commission has to gear up," Krishna said at a press conference.

Commenting on the long gap between the last phase of voting and May 13, fixed for counting of votes in Karnataka, Krishna said, "It should not be agonisingly long. It fills so much anxiety."

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Karnataka will go to the second and final phase of polling tomorrow (Apr 25, 2004) and the counting of votes will be taken up on May 13.

Krishna wanted the Election Commission also to address to the problem of missing names in electoral roles by fixing accountability on those the duty was vested with.

"This is nothing but a mockery of Democracy. There is something basically wrong," he remarked and suggested that political parties must evince interest in looking into voters list.

He expressed surprise over the missing of names of Kannada matinee idol Rajkumar's family members from the voters list.