PANAJI
Over nine lakh Goans kept their date with democracy on Monday flocking to polling stations and exercising their right to vote and elect 40 representatives in the Goa legislative assembly, thus sealing the fate of the contenders for power -- the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Congress and Goa Forward Party (GFP) alliance, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP)-Trinamool Congress alliance.
Approximately 78.94% of the 11.64-lakh registered voters had cast their vote on electronic voting machines (EVMs) at 1,722 polling stations across the 40 assembly constituencies.
According to CEO Kunal, the final voting percentage figure is likely to be around 80 per cent after including absentee voters and taking the actual final tally. Postal ballots of 13,115 80 absentee voters and 15,474 officials will also be added to the tally later, he said.
Nearly 100 polling stations were monitored by using the Artificial Intelligence (AI) system of Webcast monitoring designed by IIT Goa.
The system was deployed at 53 vulnerable locations, 28 pink booths, 8 Divyang booths, 3 regular booths among others.
There were a few skirmishes and untoward incidents reported through the day as polling began at 7 am and ended at 6 pm.
In one incident in Dabolim constituency, a male nurse attached to the Goa Medical College, was accosted by officials with cash which he was allegedly distributing to lure voters, with the needle of suspicion pointing to Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho who is seeking a third consecutive term from the seat.
In yet another incident, a luxury car belonging to a BJP worker in Borda-Bicholim was burnt overnight. The car owner has filed a complaint with the police alleging it to be the handiwork of political opponents. Goa Speaker Rajesh Patnekar is seeking re-election from this constituency where he is being challenged by former MLA Naresh Sawal of the MGP and a formidably Independent Dr Chandrakant Shetye.
There were a couple of other incidents in which MGP's Ponda candidate Dr Ketan Bhatikar has been accused of physical assault by a voter which he has denied and another one where two groups clashed at a polling station in Gaondongrim of Canacona constituency.
The suspense over who wins or loses will be unravelled only on March 10 when the counting process will be held after completion of all phases of this election to four more States other than Goa -- Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Manipur.
The EVMs will be stored in high security till the day of counting at Bal Bhavan for North Goa constituencies and Multipurpose building for South Goa constituencies.
