PANAJI
A total of 10 nominations were filed on Wednesday, the day one of the process for nominations to elections in the five municipal councils of Margao, Mormugao, Mapusa, Sanguem and Quepem scheduled for April 23.
State Election Commission sources said no nomination papers were filed in Margao.
Three nomination papers each were filed for the Mapusa, Mormugao and Quepem municipal councils while in Sanguem only one aspirant submitted papers.
Elections to these five municipal councils were abruptly deferred after the Bombay High Court judgement found fault in the procedures followed to reserve wards for women, SC, ST and OBCs.
The State government's attempt to reverse the High Court judgement also flopped as the Supreme Court of India upheld it and also passed scathing strictures against it for undermining the "independence" of the SEC as mandated in the Constitution.
The Apex Court also directed that the whole process, including reservation of wards, be conducted afresh and the elections completed by April 30.
Current State Election Commissioner (SEC) W B Ramanamurthy was preceded before the Apex Court judgement by Chokka Ram Garg, IAS, who is a serving bureaucrat and held the office of the law secretary to the State government simultaneously.
The Supreme Court judgement had taken a stern view of serving bureaucrats holding the SEC post as "additional charge" and had also directed that all such serving bureaucrats across States in India step down forthwith.
