MAPUSA
Amid coronavirus fears, voting for elections to nine Zilla Panchayat constituencies in Bardez was lacklustre which reflected on the turnout which was on the lower side.
A total of 52.70 per cent of voters cast their ballot by the end of the day even as voting passed off peacefully on Saturday.
The villagers of Gudem in Siolim who had threatened to boycott the elections finally cast their vote as the chief minister and the PWD officials promised to resolve their water woes by laying a new water pipeline in the village.
The first half of the polling set the trend of low voter turnout with the first two hours from 8 am to 10 am recording an average of 10.66 per cent voting in all the nine constituencies.
Pictures of empty polling stations were witnessed in several constituencies while very few polling stations saw people in queues.
At noon, most of the polling stations in Calangute were virtually empty with voters coming in a trickle.
“The lower turnout was expected due to the Covid pandemic but we are not concerned about it. BJP has a very strong organisation setup which will do the job for us. We have 29 polling stations in Calangute and we have people who are managing the affairs who have been allotted specific responsibility,” said Dattaprasad Dabholkar, BJP candidate for Calangute.
He said he expected to sail through comfortably with the support of the local MLA Michael Lobo and the BJP voter base.
Although low turnout was a concern among the candidates, almost all of them fancied their chances in the elections.
“Many of the Catholic community have not come out to vote due to Covid concerns. Low turnout is a concern but our party will do well,” said Diksha Kandolkar, BJP candidate from Sirsaim.
Colvale recorded the highest voting at 67.26 per cent while Aldona recorded the least voting at 42.64 per cent.
The following was the voting percentage in other constituencies: Siolim (54.30), Sirsaim (52.33), Anjuna (52.05) Calangute (52.47), Socorro (55.06), Reis Magos (46.15) and Penha da France (52.04).
