CANACONA
Former Canacona MLA Isidore Fernandes criticised the Returning Officer's decision not to accept votes which were stamped on the backside of the ballot paper.
“This is contrary to the Returning Officer's decision at Sanguem. At Barse (Gaondongrim), one of my candidates was declared to have lost by just one vote. In fact, he had all 10 votes polled by him and stamped on the backside of the ballots declared as invalid,” said Fernandes.
“I am seeking legal opinion whether to go in for appeal or not in this matter,” Fernandes added.
Meanwhile, Returning Officer Manoj Korgaonkar issued 'Election Certificates' to the winning candidates late Friday evening and also announced that winning candidates can collect these certificates on Tuesday.
Earlier, the Returning Officer had announced that certificates would be handed over to winners after 3 pm, but the recounting of three wards from different panchayats delayed the counting procedure almost till 5 pm. This made it difficult for election officials to issue certificates to all winning candidates on the same day.
