Three sitting members, wives of two former Zilla chairpersons, two former sarpanchas and two sitting panchas have been elected for the South Goa Zilla Panchayat from Salcete taluka. Of the nine winning candidates, five have turned out to be women – three from reserved constituencies and two from the general category. Sitting ZP members, who have retained their seats, are Maria Rebello (Benaulim), Domnick Gaonkar (Raia) and Nelly Rodrigues (Colva). Nelly was elected unopposed. The wives of former ZP chairpersons Joe Dias and Cleofacio Dias – Sabrina (Chinchinim) and Seema (Guirdolim) — have also made it to the Zilla Panchayat. Panch members who got elected to the district panchayat body were Wilfred D’Sa (Nuvem) and Anthony (Babush) Rodrigues (Assolna). Veena Lourenco and Maria Miranda are the two former sarpanchas who have been elected to the Zilla Panchayat from Curtorim and Davorlim ZP constituencies, respectively. Sarpanchas who received the drubbing at the hustings were Camurlim Sarpanch Basilio Fernandes (Raia) and Ambelim Sarpanch Cruz Silva (Velim). Constituency-wise, PWD Minister Churchill Alemao-backed sitting Benaulim ZP member Maria Rebello retained the ZP seat in style winning the seat by a huge margin of 5350 votes. Maria polled a total of 5555 votes. So pronounced was her victory that the remaining three candidates could not even cross the four-figure mark. Maria took an unassailable lead of 5347 votes in round one, leaving the other two candidates way behind. Her nearest rival, Domnick Santano Colaco managed to poll only 205 votes. The remaining two candidates, Judas Chagas Silva polled 187 votes, while Bartolomeu Gracias polled only 149 votes. In Velim, Water Resources Minister Filipe Neri Rodgrigues-backed Anthony (Babush) Rodrigues got the better of Cruz Silva by winning the seat by a margin of 330 votes. While Babush polled 2876 votes, Silva polled 2546 votes. Jorge Crasto polled only 437 votes. Similarly, in Chinchinim, the wife of sitting ZP member Joe Dias, Sabria – who was backed by both Churchill Alemao and Filipe Neri Rodrigeus – won the seat by a margin of 497 votes. While Sabrina polled 2239 votes, her nearest rival Joslyn Fernandes polled 1742 votes. Tina Pereira and Doura Fernandes polled 1075 and 673 votes respectively. In the straight fight for the Guirdolim seat between Seema Dias, wife of incumbent ZP Chairperson Cleofacio and Sunita Gonsalves, Seema scored a comfortable victory by a margin of 2914 votes. While Seema, who was backed by Urban Development Minister Joaquim Alemao, polled 4629 votes, Sunita polled only 1715 votes. In Raia, the fierce straight fight between sitting ZP member Domnick Gaonkar and Basilio Fernandes went in favour of Domnick, who was declared elected by a margin of 669 votes. Raia was in the news as Basilio’s candidate was backed by Power Minister Alexio Sequeira, PWD Minister Churchill Alemao and Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco, while Domnic was supported by Tourism Minister Mickky Pacheco. While Domnick polled 4059 votes, Basilio got 3386 votes. In Nuvem, Wilfred D’Sa emerged victorious over Francisco Macarenhas by a comfortable margin of 1392 votes. Backed by Tourism Minister Mickky Pacheco, Wilfred poled 4807 votes as against 3417 votes polled by Francisco, who was backed by the Churchill Alemao-Alexio Sequeira combine. Former Curtorim Sarpanch Veena Lourenco won the Curtorim seat by a margin of 2787 votes. Reginaldo Lourenco-backed Veena polled 4511 votes while her nearest rival Sarita Dias polled 1724 votes. The third candidate Alinda Fernandes came a poor third by polling only 761 votes. Churchill Alemao backed-Maria Miranda scored a handsome victory over Fatima Miranda in Davorlim by winning the seat by a margin of 2584 votes. While Maria poled 4193 votes, Fatima polled only 1609 votes. _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail: Free, trusted and rich email service. https://signup.live.com/signup.aspx?id=60969