PANJIM: The curtains came down on Thursday on the campaign for the February 4 polls. A total of 251 candidates will be battling for a seat in the 40-member Legislative Assembly. The Chief Electoral Office (CEO) is expecting a record turnout. The main parties in the fray are BJP, Congress, AAP and MGP and its allies.
“The campaign for the poll ended at 5.00pm. Any campaigning by political parties or independent candidates would be considered as violation of model code of conduct,” Additional CEO Narayan Navti told Herald.
Navti said that 11.08lakh voters are eligible to cast their vote. “Polling will be held in 1642 booths, which would be 100 percent webcast,” he said.
Goa will be the first State to have webcasting of polling of all 40 constituencies, while will be the only State to cover all booths with VVPAT – Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail.
The State is also going to be the first to have pink polling booths for women. One polling booth in each constituency has been identified which will be reserved for women officers. The State has around 5.62 lakh female voters.
“We have around 650 reserve polling booths and VVPAT and EVM machines in place in case of an emergency,” Navti said adding that to ensure that people are not put to hardships, replacements would be in place within 10-15 minutes.
“Polling will take place from 7.00am to 5.00pm on Saturday,” he said. Counting will be held on March 11.
There are 14,000 persons on poll related duty, which includes election observers in all constituencies. Another 1750 staffers will be monitoring polling through video camps.
The State will observe dry days from Thursday evening till Saturday midnight. All liquor shops, bar and restaurants are directed not to serve or sell liquor during the period.
The district administrations has imposed Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 from 5.00 pm of February 2 to 9.00 pm of February 4.
AAP, which was the first to begin campaigning is contesting 39 seats, followed by Congress that has fielded candidates in 37 seats supporting three candidates in Porvorim, Siolim and Panjim.
BJP has fielded candidates in 36 constituencies while supporting Independents in Catholic-voter dominated constituencies. The new found alliance between MGP, rebel RSS leader Subhash Velingkar’s Goa Suraksha Manch and Shiv Sena is contesting 37 seats. NCP is contesting in 17 seats and there are 58 independents and 26 candidates from the regional fronts are in the fray.
