Team Herald
MARGAO: On Friday, 64.25 per cent voters cast their ballot for the Margao Municipal Council elections. However, polling at Ward 4 went beyond the stipulated time as the poll officials arrived at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex only at 7 pm.
In all, 50 COVID positive patients exercised their franchise on Friday with 10 each voting in Wards 12 and 13, nine in Ward 7, eight in Ward 11, four each in Wards 1 and 17, three in Ward 22 and one each in Ward No 9 and 19.
The highest number of voters was registered in part 3 of Ward 23 where 1,406 were supposed to vote at the booth situated in the Water Resources Department office at Gogol. Actually 693 voters cast their ballot and hence 49.28 voters exercised their ballot in this ward which is reserved for ST Women and has three candidates namely Nimesia Faleiro, Nadia Vaz and Viviana Cardoso who is the daughter of former minister Alex (Mama) Cardoso.
The least voters registered were 330 in part 5 of Ward 15 for which the booth was at the Damodar High School, Comba. Ward 15 is in the general category and has six candidates namely Iftihar Shaikh, Mahesh Amonkar, Uday Dessai, Manoj Masurkar, Lincoln Vaz and Fabian Coutinho.
The lowest turnout of voters was in part 2 of Ward 14 where only 202 of the registered 574 voters came to cast their ballot thus only 35.19 per cent of the voters voted. Incidentally this booth situated at Fatima Convent High School witnessed high drama on Friday with Deputy Chief Minister Babu Ajgaonkar visiting the booth even though he is not a registered voter there.
Babu visited the booth because his niece Ronita Ajgaonkar is directly contesting against Jamuni Sulaksha alias Sulu in Ward 14 as it is reserved for SC women.
Part 1 of Ward 9 at the Anganwadi at Marlem had the highest turnout of voters as 660 of the registered 786 votes exercised their ballot thus giving a voting percentage of 83.96 per cent. Ward No. 9 is in the general category and has eight candidates namely Mahadev Hazare, Ravindra (Raju) Naik, Narmada Kundaikar, Manuel Oliveira, Roshal Fernandes, Agustin Miranda and Vincent Pereira.
The least votes cast were in part 2 of Ward No. 2 at Rosary High School Fatorda where only 179 of the total registered 351 voters exercised their ballot. Ward No. 2 which is reserved for OBC has two candidates Kalidas Naik and Joao, alias Jhonny Crasto.
Highest number of votes cast was in part 3 of ward No. 25 at Bhatikar Model High School where 768 of the 1017 registered voters cast their ballot. This ward reserved for women has four candidates namely Babita Naik, Ashma Bi, Apurva Tadel, Kulsum Bi Shaikh alias Ruby.
The highest turnout of 74.09 per cent voters was witnessed in ward No. 7 which is in the general category. The least turnout was in Ward No. 23 where only 56.09 per cent.
