Goa has always seen a high voter turnout for assembly elections. 2017 election saw a voter turnout of 83% which was highest over the years. This implies that people do understand and exercise their right to vote. Yet looking at the current scenario, the number of protests against harmful bills and ominous scams, the unhappiness and resentment among the people, the last straw being the communal tension growing in our peaceful community which has created a feeling of dismay and hopelessness with posts being shared on social media that we have lost our Goa.
This leads us to one important aspect which we need to focus our attention on. Are we doing our duty of choosing the right candidate? With the advancement in communication technologies and increase in the use of smart phones and other electronic gadgets information is at our finger tips. But have we ever done a thorough and credible research before casting our vote? What were the developmental works carried out? What policies were supported? What polices which were not beneficial to our State were not contested? Which promises were fulfilled? Which promises just appeared on the manifesto and will now appear again with slight modifications or in a different order or using synonyms.
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Political rallies may not be the right place to find these answers and with a raging pandemic such rallies are nothing but super spreader events. This time we need to base our decision on information and facts, discuss among friends and family, present to your own group about your opinions, and listen to your close people.
Even while making a humble purchase online we check for review by the customers who have already bought and used the item and do not go by the sellers advertisements. We need to make informed decisions. Do not take the Rs2000 offered; your vote has much more value not only in terms for money but the effect it will have on our future generations and their lives. Also especially in this election with so many parties and candidates we need to also pay heed to vote share and splitting of votes or the result would be that majority of voters have voted against the candidate who finally comes to power.
This is and will be very detrimental to us. Even though I started my write-up stating that Goa has high voter turnout what we can see are very emotionally charged posts mostly by our fellow Goans who are overseas about their opinion on what is going on in Goa, yet not many will be here to cast their vote. Some who have been down for Christmas Vacation are flying back before the elections and will post again once election results are out.
Assembly elections come once in five years if possible please apply for leave, book the ticket and do come and vote. Please extend your leave and do vote. As it will be your vote that will make the difference and it will be worth it. Those of us here please take an hour off and do vote and vote right. As it looks like we do not have a much room for error this time around.
