Goa reports 78.94% voter turnout in Assembly polls

In Goa’s Valentine’s Day polls, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s constituency of Sanquelim witnessed a record turnout, with 89.64 voters casting a ballot in the key contest in the coastal state, which witnessed an overall voting per centage of 78.94 per cent.

The tally is more than three per cent lower than the voting percentage during the 2017 assembly polls when 82.56 per cent of eligible voters in Goa exercised their electoral franchise.

According to the state’s Chief Electoral Officer Kunal, the highest voting percentage was recorded in the Chief Minister’s constituency, while the lowest voter turnout was reported in the Benaulim assembly constituency in South Goa where only 70.20 voters turned out to cast their ballot.

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“79.84 per cent voting was reported in the North Goa district, while 78.15 per cent voting was reported in the South Goa district,” Kunal said.

“These are temporary figures which we have received via telephone from the polling officials and SMS. The figure is likely to go up as the final figures arrive and postal ballots are counted on counting day,” the top poll official also said.

Inspector-General of Police Rajesh Kumar, who was in charge of law and order during the election campaign and on polling day, said, "no major untoward incident was reported in the state throughout the day."

“Polling was very peaceful and there were no incidents of violence and no major incidents. There were 38 calls received concerning minor violations of the model code of conduct and minor disputes,” Kumar said.

“Five FIRs have been registered including two of people who clicked photos of the EVM when they were voting and uploaded them on social media,” he also said.

Kumar further said that 55 companies of paramilitary forces and 5,000 Goa Police personnel had been pressed into poll-related law and order duties on Monday.

While the voter turnout in the early hours of Monday was brisk, with more than 26 per cent of the state’s eligible pool of 11,56,464 voters casting their ballot within the first four hours, the voting rush petered out as the day progressed.

According to Kunal, 14 control units, 80 ballot units, and 12 VVPAT units were replaced throughout the day amid reports of malfunctioning.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has expressed confidence in victory when the results are eventually scheduled to be announced on March 10.

“We are contesting 40 seats and we are confident that with the kind of work we have done, we will form a government with a full majority. I will win Sanquelim with a lead of 4000,” Sawant said.

Congress however maintains that the early voter rush indicates that the electoral tide had turned against the BJP.

“People have made a decisive decision that BJP should be defeated. 80 per cent of the people have made a decision. The manner in which voting was brisk early on indicates that the people are angry. People have stood in queues for nearly two hours to cast their votes,” state Congress president Girish Chodankar said.

301 candidates are in the fray for the polls, where the Congress (in alliance with the Goa Forward Party) and the BJP are expected to be the main players – when results are eventually announced – while the Aam Aadmi Party, the Trinamool Congress, and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party alliance and the Revolutionary Goans are expected to bring up the rear as far as the seat count is concerned.

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