In South Goa, the tentative tally indicated that highest voting took place at Priol with 89.24% voting and the lowest was recorded by Vasco da gama with a paltry 59.02% voting.
PANAJI
The State of Goa has recorded a provisional voting percentage of 83% even as figures of voting percentages continued to pour in late into the night and polling officials struggled to compile a final voting percentage.
The highest voting in North Goa, according to provision figures released by the North Goa District Electoral Officer Nila Mohanan was Sanquelim with 89.14% while the lowest was 72% in Santa Cruz.
The state witnessed a by and large incident free voting day, even as reports of voting machines faltering were reported across the state as well as a re-poll was ordered in Aquem Polling Station No. 8 of Margao Assembly Constituency after a procedural error was detected midway through polling.
Goa also created several firsts with its poll. The State is now the first to have a 100% implementation of the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) in all the constituencies in the state. Besides this the State has also implemented the e-postal ballot system for the first time in the country.
Addressing media persons at the end of the poll, Chief Electoral Officer Kunal said that the polls were largely peaceful and appreciated the efforts of not just the polling staff and the policemen on duty but also that of the voters who came out in large numbers to vote.
As many as two ballot units and three control units were reported to be malfunctioning and had to be replaced while 12 Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines malfunctioned and needed to be replaced midway through polling.
Chief Electoral Officer Kunal however, said that the replacement didn’t change the schedule of the polling too much and while there were some delays, there were no “undue” delays.
In Aquem, re-polling was ordered at Polling Station No. 8 of Margao Assembly Constituency after a procedural error was detected midway through polling. According to the Chief Electoral Officer, the officers didn’t delete the votes polled during the mock poll and it resulted in the poll process being “vitiated”.
Scrutiny of the polling process will continue tomorrow and if discrepancies are noticed, repolling can be ordered in other booths as well, the Chief Electoral Officer Kunal said.
Voters in Goa set out early to vote with more than half the state having voted by 1pm. At 1pm voting in the entire state was recorded at 50.39 per cent while 53.35% voters having voted in North Goa and 47.87% having voted in South Goa.
By 3pm, 62.32% voters in the state had voted with 66.14% having voted in the North and 59.06 voting in the South.
