Polling for the 15th Lok Sabha elections were peaceful. For the first time
perhaps the Election Commission imposed several "donts". Some were almost an
irritant to the candidates and others deserved their baton.
For example the defacing of public property the sloganeering the posters were
absent even the polling tables did not have the party symbol/flag prominently
displayed.
When this writer toured the various polling booths there were hardly any
workers seen around the polling booths. There were no paramilitary troops
imported.
Ofcourse most of the commercial shops and establishments were closed and this
came as a blessing in disguise. The "aam aadmi" common man's " cuppa chai" too
was missing. But the blessing was that these hot chat spots were visibly
abandoned there was no gossip rumour mongering etc and therefore one had to
vote and go back home and imbibe the spirit at home.
There was another confusion, voting commenced at some booths at 0700 hrs and
others at 0800 hrs. The mistake was because atleast the BJP voters apppeal
showed the timing as 0800 hrs instead of 0700 hrs so one precious hour of
voting was lost. Though climatic temperatures were surging there was less
humidity so voting was by and large slow and steady.
This time round the voters required to carry their EPIC or any of the
government recognised phot identity as the electoral rolls for purpose of
identification. The electoral rolls carried the photographs of most of the
voters. Ironically as confirmed from the Election Office most of the voters
in the Velhas Conquistas constituencies had to undergo a horrendous struggle
to have their photographs on the electoral rolls . The % of such persons is
around 25 to 28 %.
Surprisingly in constituencies in the Novas Conquistas mainly in the gahat
talukas etc having sizeable number of illiterate voters only 5 to 10% voters
were yet to photograph.
The Election Commission should institute an enquiry into the lapses of the
agent selected for failure in photographing the voters. According to one
official the officials in the respective talukas were ensuring to eliminate
persons working abroad mainly in Gulf countries and hence the large number of
persons from the Velhas Conquistas who had to go without photographs on the
electoral rolls. Even on the last day despite a huge Q that was seen at the
South Goa Collectorate the officials suddenly closed the photograph session and
wound up operations on 20th April 2009.
When this writer spoke to the Jt Chief Electoral Officer telephonically this
evening he confirmed that the overall voting percentage was 53% with a break up
of 56.5% in the Panaji Parliamentary Constituency and 50% in the Mormugao
Parliamentary Constituency.
Voting trends thus far reveals that the INC candidate will register a win in
the South Goa Parliamentary Constituency while in the North the NCP/BJP will
register a close contest as per the voting trends received at 20 hrs. Until a
clear picture of voting pattern emerges from the drawing rooms of the BJP NCP
for the North Goa a clear victor is yet to emerge.
GODFREY J. I. GONSALVES,
BORDA, MARGAO, 403 602, GOA. (INDIA)
+91 98221 58584 (24 HRS)
gonsalvesgodfre...@yahoo.co.in
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