MAPUSA
Admitting that the High Court order has upset his calculations in the civic elections, Mapusa MLA Joshua D’Souza on Monday said the Election Commission should set a standard protocol on reservation so that such a situation does not arise.
“They should have a standard procedure on the reservation process so that every 10 years it is done on rotation and if there is delimitation, the entire process starts again as it happened in Mapusa in 2015,” D’Souza said.
The High Court in its order upheld the contention of the petitioners that reservation in Mapusa was done in an arbitrary manner.
The court also in a critical appraisal observed that the Director of Municipal Administration ignored the mandate of the Constitution as well as the Goa Municipalities Act, 1968 in matters of rotation while reserving the seats for the Mapusa Municipal Council.
Continuing, D’Souza said the Election Commission should fix a procedure on how to go about in formulating the reservation of wards rather than leave it hanging and leading to an inconvenient situation.
“We were ready with the list of the candidates and were to announce our panel on March 2. This High Court order has upset all our calculations,” he said.
