CANACONA
Voting was by and large peaceful at the Canacona Municipal Council (CMC) elections on Saturday, barring one incident when a Ward 4 candidate sustained leg injuries after being hit by a moving car driven by a voter.
According to details, 8,824 voters (87.07%) cast their ballots in elections to the 12 wards of (CMC) on Saturday.
Wards 5 (Kindlem), 7 (Kindlebhag), 8 (Patnem) 9 (Sawantwada) and 11 (Devabhag - Palolem) recorded a voter turnout of over 90%, with the highest percentage 93.37% in Devabhag-Palolem. Ward 6 (Ponsulem) recorded the least voter turnout of 76.74%.
A police case was registered after Dhiraj alias Pandurang Naikgaunkar, a candidate at Mastimoll Ward (4), was struck by a moving car driven by a voter. Naikgaunkar sustained a leg injury and was admitted to a hospital for treatment.
When contacted, Canacona police informed a case under the Motor Vehicles Act has been registered.
Naikgaunkar, however, alleged that he had been deliberately hit by the driver, who had in the past also made attempts to harm his family members.
There was another commotion at the Ward 2 Chaudi polling station, after some voters objected to the opening of Sahakar Bhandar Super Market Counter, which was the only business establishment open in the vicinity.
According to voters, the Chaudi Polling Station is located at Govt Primary School in the heart of Chaudi Town and responding to the Magistrate orders, no trader had kept their establishment open, except for the Sahakar Bhandar.
The candidates also objected to the open Sahakar Bhandar and the police later directed the manager of the Sahakar Bhandar to down the shutters, after which the shop was closed.
While election officials said voters entered the polling booths with faces masks, four people found without facemasks at market area were fined Rs 200 each.
Incidentally, police posted at many polling stations found it difficult to enforce social distancing among voters.
While one policeman was seen armed with a thermal gun to check the temperature of voters, another policeman in Khaki struggled to maintain social distancing at the polling booths.
'The voter turnout is very good and if we try to strictly follow social distancing rules, the queue would go beyond the pandals and voters would have had to wait on the roads in the hot sun,” explained a policemen at a polling booth in Canacona.
