CORTALIM
The by-election to Ward IV of Cansaulim-Arossim-Cuelim Panchayat registered a voting percentage of 66.03 with 449 out of 680 voters exercising their franchise.
In one-to-one contest, former sarpanch Martha Saldanha is pitted against a new comer in politics Angela Pereira. The election passed off peacefully.
It is feared that this time around also the result in the by-election could see a close fight like the one witnessed in 2012 election, when former panch Casendra Almeida defeated former sarpanch and four-term panch Martha Saldanha by a margin of 6 votes. Almeida resigned as panch under controversial circumstances leading to the by-election.
Mormugao Mamlatdar Laxmikant Desai was the Returning Officer, while Walter Rodrigues was the Presiding Officer. Amresh Naik, Sachin Kavlekar and Neha Mayenkar were the polling officers.
The counting will take place on Monday, at 9 am, at the Mormugao Mamlatdar office. The contesting candidates have been told to report at 8.30 am.
For the Chicalim Panchayat by-poll, the election to Ward 1 witnessed a triangular contest with former sarpanch Raul D'Costa, Alex Pereira and Deepak Pednekar in the fray and 398 out of 545 voters cast their votes.
Anil Korgaokar was the presiding officer. The election was necessciated following the resignation of former sarpanch Anacleto D'Souza.
