As
Panjim prepares for another election to fill the seat that fell vacant following the demise of
former CM Manohar Parrikar, the heat and dust of such an exercise is slowly
momentum. The tension and the pressure of winning can make politicians say and
do things they may regret later. But was it always like this in Goa? This
journalist spoke to people who voted in the seventies and eighties and who
watched the entire drama unfold with much interest.
Voting
that time was a novelty for us and there were very few candidates who stood for
elections. The politicans were good and hardworking and there was a less
interference from the Election Comission. The major problems was of garbage,
sewage, footpaths. The current problems are of proper roads, parking, garbage
etc but nothing has been happening about it.
Tony Dias
I
first voted in the 1984 Assembly elections. There were only 30 constituencies
then and ‘development’ was the byword. Later that year I was delighted to vote
in the polls to the 8th Lok Sabha. The country was still in the grip of
insecurity following the death of PM Mrs Gandhi… Today, I no longer feel
enchanted by the outcome of the electoral process, but I do vote, purely out of
a sense of civic duty.
Oscar de Noronha,
Associate Professor
I
first voted in the 1984 Assembly elections. There were only 30 constituencies
then and ‘development’ was the byword. Later that year I was delighted to vote
in the polls to the 8th Lok Sabha. The country was still in the grip of
insecurity following the death of PM Mrs Gandhi… Today, I no longer feel
enchanted by the outcome of the electoral process, but I do vote, purely out of
a sense of civic duty.
Oscar de Noronha,
Associate Professor
I
voted for the first time in 1982. It was a very easy-going affair. Unlike
today, there was not much of a rush. I am now a teacher in the Goa Engineering
College and am deputed for election duty now which requires me to be present at
the polling centre at 7 o clock in the morning. This was not the case then. No
one woke up in the morning to go and vote early. Political meetings were not
like how it is today which is very organised. Then they were very relaxed
affairs. Politicians used to be very relaxed in their campaigning style. Some
would have a house to house campaign style while others would drive around in a
jeep urging people to vote for them. I remember souvenirs would be given out to
voters and many of the plastic ones were very popular with the children.
Politicians then use to keep their promises. They never promised big but
whatever they promised they would do it”
Jose Arleto Da Costacampos
