First time voters carve their choice for Assembly polls’ representatives critically

PANJIM: The State of Goa is almost at the threshold, precisely two days away, to choose their next panel of representatives for the betterment of the State at all respect. 

This time, elections fever soared with number of regional and seasoned national parties are claiming their stakes in the Assembly. 

Herald, trying to gauge the mood of the State, spoke with bunch of first time voters, and learnt that predictably the next-gen voters are meticulously precise and rational about their choices when it came to choose from an uneven mix of old and fresh representative, regional and national parties. 

According to the Department of Information and Publicity, total 29,479 voters including 15,626 male and 13,853 female voters have been newly enrolled.   

First time voter from Benaulim, Erica Carmona said, “I will vote for the one who will not deviate from his words, who will be able to fulfil the assurances and not the one who is all talk and no action. As a young mind, I have always the habit of analysing. Those who had jumped from here to there for their greed to power or carried away due to influence from others, with no clear morals and ethics will not be voted for.” 

“I will cast my vote to the candidate who raise the voice for the people of his constituency and also show the willingness to listen to the grievances of people instead of turning a deaf ear to their problems,” added Carmona.

Speaking about long pending problems of Benaulim Constituency, Carmona said, “A good health facility in Benaulim is need of the hour. Benaulim being a beach line area, beach litter is yet another issue the locals are annoyed with. The candidate who will solve these basic issues and can probe the stringent rules when in power is someone I am looking to cast my valuable vote.” 

Nupur Jadeja, a fresh voter from Porvorim said that she will consider the leadership quality, educational qualification of a candidate and his view towards tackling the issues of constituency to be three key points to cast her vote. 

“A leader should be a good speaker. Good Communication skill is important to raise the issues of people in Assembly. In addition, seniority of the leader, as in how experienced the leader is, and how he had faced the issues in the past will be considered,” added Nupur.

Adding Nupur said, “I’ll vote a candidate who I feel will be capable of maintaining the roads in good condition, able to provide basic amenities, build a sports complex, prioritise infrastructural developmental as far as my constituency is concern.” 

Vidhant Kurtikar from Saligao constituency said, “I will opt to vote for the candidate who will take environment into consideration when brining in any new project or while doing any infrastructural development. A candidate giving key importance to the sustainable development, who will strive to work to protect environment and the one who will take peoples view into consideration before sanctioning any new project in the constituency, will be prioritised.” 

Jolen Coutinho from Navelim said, “I will rather prefer voting to the new face hoping they will bring a change instead of voting for the candidates who instead of being in power did nothing. So far, the ruling leaders have always failed to solve the garbage issue, which is a major issue of Navelim”.

“From whatever I have analysed so far, it is a fact that no candidate remains grateful to you once voted to power. I will prefer voting NOTA if I feel that none of the candidate is eligible to come to power”, added Jolen.  

Hardik Patel from Margao said, “I have analysed the candidates based on their past record. The new faces are being analysed based on the assurances they give to the people of Margao. From last decade I have not seen any visible development in our constituency or in the state”. 

“Since I am out of station I won’t be able to cast my vote. Had it been a case that I was in Goa, I would have still skipped voting since I feel casting a vote is of no use. What I have noticed so far is, irrespective of whoever you vote for finally what you get is a big zero in the form of development. So I have decided to skip voting,” added Hardik.  

Maverick Pereira from Benaulim wants a candidate who is well educated, well updated and aware about the various issues faced by the people of constituency. Furthermore, he said he will prefer voting the one who he thinks will address the grievances of people at a faster pace without playing delaying tactics.

Waluscha Rodrigues from St.Cruz believes that there the basic issues such as irregular supply of water, sanitation, erratic electricity supply needs to be to be addressed giving highest priority. 

Mayuresh Naik, a new voter from Fatorda constituency has set his mind to vote for the one who focuses on giving priority to better educational and health facilities and who prefers dealing with people with honesty.

Abhinav Shahu from St. Andre considers voting for the candidate who will work towards solving the issue of bad road; the issue according to him is faced by the locals of St. Andre for decades. Stating that they had approached the local MLA with the same issue a multiple times but in vain, Shahu added that, “I will vote for the one whose assurances seems to be real than fake.”