PANAJI
Elections to the five municipal councils of Margao, Mapusa, Mormugao, Quepem and Sanguem will be held on April 23, State Election Commissioner W V Ramanamurthy said on Tuesday.
The elections on April 23 will be the second round of civic elections in Goa after the six municipal councils and the Corporation of the City of Panaji which were held on March 20.
Ramanamurthy who addressed a press conference on Tuesday said, "elections to these five municipal bodies will be held on April 23 and the counting will be carried out on April 26."
Approximately 1.85 lakh voters are eligible to cast the ballot in this round of municipal polls.
As per the detailed schedule, filing of nominations will be held between March 31 and April 8, while scrutiny will be done on April 9.
One day, April 10, has been kept for withdrawal of nominations following which the final list of candidates will be declared after 3 pm.
Polling on April 23 will be held from 8 am to 5 pm and the last hour has been kept for Covid patient voting.
With the announcement of the schedule, the Model Code of Conduct has come into force in the jurisdiction of these five municipal councils and will continue till midnight of April 26.
Meanwhile, Ramanamurthy said in view of Covid situation, only 2 persons will be allowed to accompany candidates when they go to file their nominations.
On flouting of the Model Code of Conduct the SEC said, “we have a book... when there is an issue we will address it and take necessary action”.
He further informed that with the exception of one, all other petitions filed against reservation of wards in the 5 municipalities which are going for polls have been dismissed by the court.
“Even regarding one petition that is not dismissed, interim relief is not given. We are going ahead with the polls,” he said.
Elections to these five municipalities had to be deferred after the Bombay High Court judgement which found fault in the procedures followed to reserve wards for women, SC, ST and OBCs.
The High Court judgement was also later upheld by the Supreme Court of India which also passed scathing strictures against the State government for undermining the "independence" of the SEC as mandated in the Constitution.
Ramanamurthy was preceded as SEC by Chokka Ram Garg, IAS, who was a serving bureaucrat and held the office of the law secretary to the State government simultaneously. The Supreme Court took objection and also directed that all serving bureaucrats holding the SEC post as an additional charge across States in India step down forthwith.
