Any candidate securing 1/6th of the votes polled secures the deposit.
In the 40 constituencies only 16 Independent candidates secured their deposit including the six who were elected as MLAs namely Naresh Sawal from Bicholim, Rohan Kaunte from Porvorim, Vijay Sardessi from Fatorda, Caetano D’Silva from Benaulim, Avertano Furtado from Navelim and Benjamin D’Silva from Velim.
In eight constituencies Independent candidates were at the second position namely: Tulio D’Souza in Saligao, Nirmala Sawant in Cumbarjua, Rodolph Fernandes in Santa Cruz, Pravin Zantye in Mayem, Govind Gaude in Priol, Domnic Gaonkar in Curtorim, Prakash Velip in Quepem and Arjun Salgaocar in Sanvordem.
The other Independent candidates who secured their deposit are John Monteiro in Cuncolim and Prasad Gaonkar in Sanguem.
Of the 131canidates who forfeited their deposits 18 polled less than 100 votes. Eight of them contested as independent candidates and the others were sponsored by some political party or the other.
The independent candidates who could not poll even 100 votes are: Rajan Kambli (61 votes) in Pernem, Sanjay Korgaonkar (81) in Taleigao, John Mascarenhas (91) in Ponda, Prashant Vastha (77) in Vasco-da-Gama and Jawahar Dias (47) in Fatorda and three in Santa Cruz – Dinesh Nair (79), Heney Lobo (42), Jose Lopes (74).
Candidates sponsored by political parties who secured less than 100 votes are: Manohar Pednekar of SJP(R) 96 votes, Santosh Mandrekar of UGDP 50 votes and Shyam Amonkar of RPI(A) 57 votes in Pernem constituency; Mukesh Sawant of SP with 66 in Siolim constituency; In Ponda constituency Vaibhav Marathe of SP with and John Mascarenhas both with 91 votes; Jagdish Durbhatkar of SS in Vasco-da-Gama who polled 64 votes; in Fatorda Ashok Korgaonkar once again of SP with 57 votes; Derick Dias of (JD(U) in Cuncolim with 85 votes; Sudesh Gaonkar of SP in Sanguem who polled 98 votes.
Postal ballots indicate winners
Panjim: At the 2012 Assembly elections, with the exception of five constituencies in all the others, the candidate who got maximum postal ballots was the ultimately victorious candidate thereby implying that postal ballots is an indicator of the results.
The five exceptions are: Tivim, Aldona, Nuvem, Fatorda and Velim constituencies where the candidate who got the highest number of postal ballots was not victorious at the elections.
At Tivim Nationalist Congress Party’s Nilkanth Halankar to 170 postal ballots while his rival Kiran Khandolkar of the BJP got only 141 and yet won the elections. Similarly at Aldona Dayanand Narvekar of the Congress got 145 postal ballots while BJP’s Glen Ticlo got 102 and yet Dayanand lost.
In South Goa at Nuvem Congress’ Aleixo Sequeira got 80 postal ballots while his rival Micky Pacheco of the Goa Vikas Party secured only 38; at Fatorda the then sitting MLA Damodar Naik of BJP got 129 postal ballots while his rival Independent Vijai Sardessai got 10 less postal ballots; and at Velim Filipe Nery Rodrigues of the Congress got 87 postal ballots while Independent Benjamin Silva got only 57. In all three constituencies the candidate who got less postal ballots was the ultimate winner.
The highest number of postal ballots was cast in Mandrem where 578 voters exercised their franchise through this means while the least were in Benaulim where only 50 opted for postal ballots. MGP’s Ramkrisha alias Sudin Davalikar having bagged 434 postal votes, was the candidate to get highest postal ballots.
In Santa Cruz constituency while Atanasio Monserrate who won the elections secured the highest number of postal ballots namely 161, the candidate who came second – Rodolph Fernandes did not get any postal ballot while MGP’s Dinar Tarcar got 134 postal ballots.
At Ponda and Shiroda constituencies, the difference in postal votes between the winning and losing candidates was only 2. At Ponda while MGP’s Lavoo Mamledar got 179 postal ballots his rival Ravi Naik of the Congress got 177 and at Shiroda BJP’s Mahadev Naik got 152 postal ballots while Congress’ Subhash Shirodkar polled only 150.
