MARGAO
The fate of the 66 candidates, including half-a-dozen former Municipal chairpersons, vying for the Cuncolim Municipal Council, have been sealed in the ballot boxes, as around 11,104 voters, around 76.35 per cent to be precise cast their votes in the Saturday polling.
Barring minor incidents of assembly of persons close to the polling booths in the morning, elections for the 14-municipal wards passed off peacefully without any incident.
State Election Commissioner, W V Ramanamurthy along with senior officials descended in the Municipal area in the evening session to take stock of the situation. The SEC said since there’s a 70-plus per cent turn out in Cuncolim, people waiting to cast votes after the 5 pm deadline will be issued voter slips.
Returning Officer, John Fernandes told the media that the voting passed off peacefully with no untoward incident. “Initially there were reports of assembly of persons within the 100 metre area at the Buinsa and Murida polling booths. Our sector officer and the police got the people to move out of the 100 metre radius area,” he said.
Polling statistic revealed that around five wards reported heavy polling with more than 800 voters turning up to cast their votes. Close to a thousand voters turned up to cast their votes in Ward No VIII, around 996 to be precise, followed by 992 voters in Ward No IX, 963 voters in Ward No VII, 940 voters in Ward No IV and 807 voters in Ward No XII.
Comparatively, only 543 voters have cast their votes in ward No 1, while 625 voters came out to vote in Ward No XII, which is witnessing a straight fight between former councillor Anthony Vaz and Melbone Da Costa.
Polling began on a moderate note for the Cuncolim Municipal Council with around 16 per cent of the voters exercising their franchise in the first two hours of polling. By 2 pm, the poll percentage had crossed the 53 per cent, before ending at a whopping 76.35 per cent.
The huge queues in some of the wards was attributing to rationalisation of polling booths, with voters of the entire ward brought under the ambit of a single polling booth.
