the goan I network
PANAJI
Candidates sponsored by Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate and his wife Jennifer, who is the local MLA, swept the Taleigao panchayat elections winning all the 11 seats, including one which went uncontested.
Results of the election were declared by the State Election Commission before noon after counting was taken up at the Taleigao Community hall at 8 am on Monday, a day after polling was held.
Agnelo Da Cunha, a close aide of the Monserrates, who was elected unopposed after his was the only nomination received for the general ward III, is tipped to be elected the Sarpanch although two other heavyweight winners -- Janu Rosario and Sydney Barreto -- could also stake their claim.
Those declared elected by the SEC include: Regha Pai (ward I), Terezinha Baretto (ward II), Agnelo Da Cunha (ward III unopposed), Mahadev Kunkolkar (ward IV), Saraswati Murgaonkar (ward V), Estella D’Souza (ward VI), Janu Rosario (ward VII), Maria Fernandes (ward VIII), Raghuvis Kuncolencar (ward IX), Santosh Chopdekar (ward X) and Sydney Barreto (ward XI).
Farmer-activist, Xavier Almeida, who along with a farmers collective has often waged battles against the threat to Taleigao’s green cover from the real estate industry, lost but not without a fight. Almeida finished runner-up in the general ward XI, polling 268 votes against Sydney Barreto who won with 719 votes.
Of the 11 wards, four were reserved for women, one each for Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes, while five for candidates from the general category.
