TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The scorching summer heat did not deter the electorate from registering the highest turnout of 76.82 percent for the two parliamentary seats in Goa on Saturday. Nearly 28,626 of those who exercised their franchise were new voters. Female voters came out in large numbers and outdid men in both North and South Goa.
Voters along the mining stretch, who are currently reeling under huge loss following suspension of iron ore mining activities since September 2012, also stepped out of their homes to elect two Lok Sabha members in the State. The response was surprisingly high as their votes will decide the fate of the candidates who have made a string of promises to bail them out of deprivation of their livelihoods.
Among the early voters was Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who cast his vote at ‘Masano de Amorim’ polling station in Panjim biding his time in the queue, till his turn came. As courtesy, the voters in the queue requested him to jump the queue and caste his vote, which he refused, saying ‘I am also a common man.’ The polling station saw an impressive turnout of voters compared to other booths across the city.
The chief minister later accompanied North Goa candidate Shripad Naik at his Ribandar polling station and subsequently toured a few polling stations in both the districts.
People shed their susegado tag even as it was a holiday and went out and voted. At almost all constituencies, people patiently stood in the queue waiting for their turn to press the button that would decide the candidates’ future. Youth, especially first time voters’ turnout was impressive. Some enthusiastic ones wore specially procured t-shirts with ‘get yourself inked’ printed on them. They also spent some time outside their respective polling stations discussing political situation and interestingly, predicting candidates’ fate.
According to the office of the chief electoral officer, a total of 28,626 were new voters. As expected, female voters came out in large numbers recording a total of 2,056,19 and 2,15,025 in the north and south constituencies respectively. Whereas 1,99,393 and 1,96,172 males voted in the two respective constituencies.
Majority cast their votes during the morning hours, apprehending discomfort as the mercury rose. Voters then surfaced after 3:30pm in big numbers. The polling officers did make sure that as per the new rule, two female voters were sent after every male voter inside the polling station. There were no complaints of biasness in this regard atleast till evening.
Interestingly, there were a few voters who openly spoke about pressing “None Of The Above” (NOTA) button.
The voting had crossed 40 percent mark by 12-noon for both the parliamentary seats wherein 44.11% voted in the North and 42.74% voted in South Goa. By 2:40pm, the voters turn out on an average was 62.05 and 59.61 percent in the north and south respectively. At around 4 pm the voting percentage rose to around 65.68% in north and 62.79% in the south, according to the CEO’s update.
By 5pm North Goa recorded 76.88% turnout, while 73.92 % polling was recorded in the South even as one hour was left for the polling to end. At the end, north Goa had 78.60 % while South had registered 75.14% voting setting a record in Parliamentary polls with 76.82 percent polling.
