CANACONA
A woman in Agonda missed voting by less than a minute and the dejected voter blamed her scooter for the delay in reaching the polling station.
The incident took place shortly after 5 pm, when a police constable on duty outside the polling booth at Government High School in Agonda closed the compound gate and was walking inside the polling booth.
Within about 30 seconds, a women on a scooter stopped in front of the gate and pleaded with the policeman to open the gate and allow her to vote. She claimed that her scooter had broken down and she had been delayed as a result.
The unmoved policeman pointed to the watch, and informed her that he cannot allow entry of any voters inside the booth after the voting hours.
Expecting the polling staff to allow her inside the booth to vote, the woman voter waited for about two minutes, and then left the polling station dejected.
When contacted, the woman said she had left her house at 4 pm, but her scooter developed a snag.“It took me about 50-55 minutes to get my scooter repaired and I rushed to vote but reached the polling booth barely 30 seconds after 5 pm,” said the voter.
Meanwhile, the voter turnout in the two ZP constituencies in Canacona takuka were 73.77% in Khola and 76.36% in Poinguinim.
At the Khola ZP elections, a total of 10,435 voters “ women (5,448) and men (4,987) “ exercised their franchise, while at the Poinguinim ZP polls, 12,844 voters “ women (6,718) and men (6,129) “ cast their ballots.
There were a number of first-time voters at many polling booths spread across the eight village panchayats of Khola and Poinguinim constituencies, which included Khola, Agonda, Betul-Naqueri, Shristhal, Poinguinim, Loliem-Polem, Gaondongrim and Khotigao have exercised their votes in respective polling stations.
