Caroline, Parekh re-elected as CCP mayor, deputy

PANJIM, MARCH 20
Incumbent Mayor Caroline Po will continue to head the affairs of the Corporation of the City of Panjim after a noisy election held Saturday morning wherein the Commissioner Elvis Gomes refused to allow voting by secret ballot.
The BJP-led corporators boycotted the election process paving way for the Po to continue as Mayor and Yatin Parekh as deputy. Gomes played a key role in entire election by not letting the secret ballot, which may have sprung surprise in BJP’s favour.
Replying to the demand made by the BJP corporators over secret ballot method for the election on Thursday, Gomes had said that the decision over it will be taken on the day of election.
The BJP corporators – Menino D’Cruz and Vaidhey Naik had contested for the post of Mayor and deputy mayor respectively and had full confidence of wining both the seats if the election were held through secret ballot.
The decision by commissioner not to have a secret ballot forced the BJP corporators to step back from the polls as well as boycotted the voting and where even surprise to see that there was not a single member in the corporation’ executive committee representing BJP corporators as per the guidelines of the new Municipality act.
“It was clear from the decision of the commissioner that he was under immense pressure from top…if the secret ballot method was adopted then the scene would have been different,” Vaidhey Naik told Herald.
Naik said that she was shocked to see Surendra Furtado supporting Po’s candidature. “Furtado is always busy in issuing press statements against function of the corporation, especially against Mayor but when it came to real action, he retracted,” she said.
“All these corporators in ruling as well as those who supported Po are equally responsible for mismanagement in CCP,” she alleged.
Naik maintained that even for this year the corporation failed in giving equal representation to the corporators in opposition in the functioning of CCP.
Po after re-electing as Mayor said that she has several projects in hands as far as the development of the city is concerned.
“Beautification of the city municipal garden and the development of the Campal football ground top the list,” she told reporters.