Goa polls: Male voter turnout more in morning hours

The male voters turned out in large numbers as compared to women during the first two hours of polling in Goa, which witnessed around 13 per cent voting till 9 AM.

The number of women voters is more in both the constituencies as compared to men.Queues with moderate number of people were witnessed at the polling booths since 7 AM when officials opened the EVMs.

The North Goa constituency, where BJP's Shripad Naik is contesting against Congress' Ravi Naik, saw 12.8 per cent voting till 9 AM, with 37,663 males and 27,348 females exercising their franchisee.

The trend was similar in South Goa constituency which witnessed 13 per cent voting with 35,690 males and 29,674 females turning up for the polling.

Even as election commission has marked 14 vulnerable and 30 as critical polling booths in the state, the voting exercised remained peaceful so far, officials said.

These booths have been given extra security cover to avoid any untoward incident, they said.

In all 10,60,777 voters will exercise their franchisee in both North and South Goa constituencies where major national parties including Congress, BJP, AAP and Communist Party of India (CPI) have locked horns.

The women voters outnumber men in the state with 5,32,469 female and 5,28,308 male voters registered in the rolls.

Polling began at all the 1,624 stations this morning as the election staff had arrived at the spots last night.

In North Goa, besides BJP's Shripad Naik and Congress' Ravi Naik, AAP's Dattaram Desai and CPI’s Suhas Naik are also in the fray.

In South Goa, Congress' Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco is fighting against BJP's Narendra Sawaikar, Swati Kerkar of AAP and Raju Mangueshkar of CPI.

The polling will conclude at 6 PM.