Voting twice in a day, a unique experience for Sinquetim electors!

NAVELIM: Voters from the Navelim panchayat ward II (Sinquetim) had a unique experience of the indelible ink marked on two fingers (third and fourth) as they cast their ballots twice on Saturday.
Residents of Sinquetim-Navelim queued up to vote at the polling station at the Rosary Higher Secondary School, Navelim for the bypolls of their ward as well as the Navelim Zilla Panchayat (ZP). But voting was peaceful and brisk with all the mandated COVID SOPs being followed such as thermal gun scanning for temperature, wearing of masks, social distancing, use of hand sanitiser, etc. Many senior citizens exercised their franchise early as voting commenced at 8 am. Youth, including first-time voters, too voted, said the Booth Level Officers (BLOs).
The by-elections to this ward were held following the death of ward panch member late Santarita ‘Babush’ Coelho. It is a straight contest between the two candidates – Coelho’s son Elrich and Jose Francisco Pereira, known as ‘Minguel’ or ‘Michael’ in Navelim. While the young Coelho may probably benefit from the sympathy factor as his late father was the ward panch member, Pereira is trying his electoral luck for the third time.
Pereira said he was confident of his victory as he had received a good response during his door-to-door campaigning.
“I love to serve others with social work being my hobby so I decided to contest the bypolls. Besides, there are only nine months for the present panchayat term to end so I will ensure that the pending works are completed,” Pereira said.
Incidentally, as the panchayat elections are not fought on party lines, Congress’ Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro has not extended his support to any of the two candidates in the fray, sources stated.
Meanwhile, it was a triangular contest for the Assolna ward VII bypolls between the present panch Bapu Budolkar’s brother Bipendra, former panch member Jayant Arolkar and Angelo Afonso.
Sources said Water Resources Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues is backing Budolkar to win the seat previously won by panch Cedric Fernandes, who resigned and migrated to UK.