Navelim ZP bye-election today
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, MAY 8
Bye-elections for the Navelim Zilla Panchayat constituency will be held on Sunday, even as election and police officials have geared up their machinery for tomorrow’s polling.
Elections to the Navelim ZP seat were countermanded due to the death of a candidate Hermino Fernandes in a road accident midway through the campaign.
Five candidates are in the fray for the electoral battle, including Succorro Fernandes, Edwin Cardozo, Agnelo Da Costa, Casmiro Vierra and Wilson Viegas.
Campaigning for the bye-poll was lacklustre and dull with the contestants resorting to door-to-door campaign to reach out to the voters spread in the villages of Navelim, Telaulim and Sirlim-Dramapur.
The election campaign had lost its charm and enthusiasm after former Navelim Sarpanch Bishuth Themudo withdrew from the fray after talks initiated by Navelim MLA and PWD Minister Churchill Alemao and Urban Development Minister Joaquim Alemao failed to evolve a consensus between Themudo and Edwin Cardozo.
Both Themudo and Cardozo were in the fray before the elections are countermanded, but Themudo decided to finally withdraw after Edwin told the Alemao brothers about his inability to withdraw from the fray.
Salcete Mamlatdar Paresh Faldesai told Herald that all arrangements have been made to conduct tomorrow’s poll. He said poll officials have fanned out to various polling stations in Navelim constituency with the poll material.
Margao police station incharge, PI Santosh Desai said the police have geared up its machinery for a smooth conduct of the poll process.
