08 May 2024  |   07:24am IST

After 2019 polls boycott, voters of Marli-Tirwal record 95.62% turnout

Team Herald

CANACONA: While Canacona boasted a 78.67% voter turnout, the Marli-Tirwal booth in Poinguinim stood out with an impressive 95.62% turnout on Tuesday – a drastic change from the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, when the same villagers had refused to vote to draw attention to the fact that they lack necessities.

The voters registered in this booth, located in a densely forested area, had boycotted the previous Lok Sabha elections as they did not have a proper access road to their village and did not have reliable water or power supply.

Canacona, geographically the largest assembly constituency in Goa, witnessed 12,837 male and 14,293 female voters exercising their franchise. Notably, at 8 polling booths, the voter turnout exceeded 90%. Residents of Cotigao and Gaondongri, predominantly tribal communities and agricultural workers, preferred to cast their votes in the morning, with nearly 60% voting completed before noon.

A voter, Prashant Desai, expressed dissatisfaction with the long queues, stating that people had to wait for more than half an hour to cast their votes. Sandesh Telekar, another voter, said they should have been allowed to carry their mobile phones, considering the long wait in the queues.

Although the Election Commission had arranged for lemonade to combat the heat wave, many first-time voters in Canacona refused it, claiming they were not informed about it in advance.

Two polling booths in hilly Sanguem notch 100% voter turnout

QUEPEM: Two booths in Sanguem taluka, one at Salgini and the other at Caverm-Pirla, notched 100 per cent voting in the Lok Sabha election on Tuesday.

Booth no. 45 at Manngal had all its 223 registered voters exercising their franchise.

Booth no. 43 at Salgini-Netravalli in Sanguem Assembly constituency, earned the rare distinction of achieving cent percent voting as all the 109 registered voters participated in the polls.

The booth is situated in the hilly regions of the taluka close to the Karnataka border, which are almost entirely inhabited by the Scheduled Tribes community.