PANAJI
Ganesh Gaonkar, the third-term legislator from Sanvordem may have been eventually elected the Speaker by a voice-vote on the back of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's IBJP) 32-7 advantage in the House but the process was not without a brief procedural faux pas.
Before the motion moved by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant seeking the election of Gaonkar to the office of Speaker could be taken up and put to vote, another resolution moved by Opposition Leader Yuri Alemao seeking to elect Quepem MLA Altone D'Costa to the office of the Speaker was voted upon and defeated by a 32-7 margin.
However, following the defeat of Alemao's motion, Deputy Speaker Joshua D'Souza who was presiding assumed that it meant that Gaonkar who was the rival candidate was elected by default.
D'Souza then urged Sawant and Alemao, as per conventions, to escort Gaonkar to the Speaker's chair when some members including Alemao and Carlos Alvares-Ferreira pointed out the procedural lapse.
The defeated resolution exclusively proposed that D'Costa be elected to the Speaker's post. It did not contain or have any reference to Gaonkar's bid.
In the circumstances Alemao and Ferreira pointed out that for Gaonkar's election to take effect, it will not suffice that the motion seeking D'Costa's election is defeated and the specific, Sawant-moved motion for Gaonkar's election will have to be passed.
After a brief pause in the proceedings during which multiple members made points and counterpoints, Sawant eventually prompted the Deputy Speaker to put to vote the motion he had moved for Gaonkar's election.
Eventually the motion was passed, Gaonkar was declared elected by D'Souza and all ended well with Sawant and Alemao escorting the new Speaker to the Chair.
