PANJIM: The fortnight-long campaign for the June 11 panchayat elections ended on Friday, with the stage set for polls in 186 panchayats. Nearly 7,49,686 Goans will cast their vote to elect representatives in 1452 wards, in 1246 booths.
“The voting will be held through ballot papers. The counting will take place on June 13,” Officer on Special Duty for the elections, Dr Durgaprasad said. “There were not many complaints of violation of election code of conduct,” he added.
As per information available, over 70 polling booths have been identified as sensitive, hypersensitive and critical. In North Goa there are 43 polling booths identified as red zones that include 31 in Bardez. In Tiswadi, there are ten booths while in Sattari there are two booths identified as critical areas.
In South Goa, 27 polling booths have been identified as sensitive. All the nine wards of Loliem village panchayat have been declared as critical.
There are 5297 candidates are in fray in 1450 wards. Elections were declared for 1522 wards but panchas were elected unopposed in 55 wards, while elections for another 15 wards have been postponed to July 1 after litigation over the reservation and delimitation process.
In all 540 wards have been reserved for OBC, SC and ST, and 490 wards for women including 323 seats for women in the general category. This election for the very first time has wards reserved for the schedule caste community.
Though the elections are not being fought on party lines, several MLAs have been campaigning for panels they have put up. Ministers and MLAs like Rohan Khaunte, Jayesh Salgaonkar, Michael Lobo, Vishwajit Rane, Francis Silveira, Govind Gawade, Churchill Alemao, Chandrakant Kavalekar, Felipe Neri Rodrigues are amongst those who were seen canvassing door-to-door for their panels. BJP and its allies had a clear understanding on not to cross each other’s path.
