Team Herald
PANJIM: The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) has petitioned to the Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai objecting to the Goa Municipalities (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022.
In its representation to the Governor, the Congress has said that Article 213 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which India is a signatory, clearly provides for elections to be by secret ballot and in the spirit of this declaration that elections right from the election to the post of the President of India, to elections to the Legislatures as also to the Municipalities and Village Panchayats at the different levels are by secret ballot. Hence, the election to the post of chairperson of the municipality needs to be by secret ballot.
The Congress has cited two judgments by the Supreme Court and the High Court of Bombay, wherein it has been stated for free and fair elections, secrecy of vote is the fundamental principle of elections in all democratic forms of local governments. It said that the move of the State government is an attempt to destroy democracy and thus override the Constitutional scheme of secrecy of elections
The petition has been signed by GPCC President Amit Patkar, Leader of the Opposition Yuri Alemao and MLAs Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira and Altone D’Costa.
Meanwhile, Goa TMC joint convenor Samil Volvaiker said that the BJP government is desperate to hold power over the municipalities and have proved that they will stop at nothing to further their political ambitions.
