Addressing the media, the Election Commission has in a first confirmed that no postal ballot or exit polls would be allowed. Joint Chief Electoral Officer Narayan Navti said that since the day was a holiday for the voters of Panjim, the need for the postal ballots was unnecessary.
Compared to the 2014 and 2012 Assembly elections that registered 73.27 percent and 77.13 percent voters respectively, Navti said he was confident the turnout for the Friday by-poll would be high.
“February 13 has been declared a paid holiday for all voters. Offices will be closed. Since this is a by-election, the number of voters, if they are working will be issued Election Duty Certificate (EDC), where they will be able to vote at the station where they are posted for election duty,” he said.
“There is a ban on the media on giving any post election analysis, though they can carry advertisements,” Navti said, confirming a ban on exit polls.
There are four candidates in fray – BJP’s Siddharth Kuncalienkar, Congress’ Surendra Furtado and Independents Samir Kelekar and Sadanand Vaigankar. The seat fell vacant following the resignation of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar who was elevated to the post of Defence minister.
By way of preparations, two observers have reached the State, Meeta Rajivlochan as General Observer and Parul Gupta as expenditure observer. Since there were no sensitive and hyper-sensitive or vulnerable polling stations, there would be no diplomat of micro observers deployed this year, Navti said.
The by-election will see 225 government staff deployed at 30 polling booths in 22 locations. Each booth will be manned by a presiding officer, three polling officers and a peon. The Goa College of Home Science, Campal has the highest number of voters 931, while the Government Primary School (West wing) booth, at Fondvem, Ribandar has the least number of 386 voters. A total of 22,057 voters, 10,722 males and 11,335 females are registered for the by-election, where voting will begin at 8 am and end at 6 pm.
In addition to the EPIC card, alternative photo identity documents like passport, driving licence, PAN card, passbooks with photograph issued by bank/ post office, MNREGA job card, pension document with photograph, or an authenticated photo voter slip issued by the election machinery can also be produced as proof of identity.
Election Voting Machines (EVM) will be stored at the ESG complex after the elections till the counting will be guarded by IRB and CISF. Counting will take place on February 16, from 8 am and is expected to finish by 10 am.
