PANJIM: The State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday enforced the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in view of the by-elections to seven different wards of seven different village panchayats, which is slated to be held on March 25.
The wards that are going for by-elections are Ward No 5 of Village Panchayat Velguem, Ward No 6 of Village Panchayat Ona-Maulinguem Kudchirem and Village Panchayat Orlim, Ward No 2 of Village Panchayat Calem, Ward No 4 of Village Panchayat Balli-Adnem, Ward No 7 of Village Panchayat Barcem-Quedem and Ward No 1 of Village Panchayat Rachol.
The by-elections have been necessitated due to different compelling reasons, in one of the wards the sitting panch member passed away while others resigned due to personal reasons.
According to Assistant Director (IT) at the SEC Sagar Gurav, the maximum limit of total election expenses by a candidate has been fixed at Rs 40,000 and the voting would be held through ballot papers as it is mandated under the existing laws.
He informed that to monitor the enforcement of MCC, the SEC has appointed General Observers and Expenditure Observer. Also the flying squads will be deployed by the District Collector North Goa and South Goa.
The SEC said that adequate police force shall be deployed by the police department for smooth conduct of by-elections.
