I am writing in response to your article on the Chief Election Commissioner's role in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voter list. I am curious to know what action will actually be taken after all this visibility. The Election Commission should have been investigated long ago when the Leader of the Opposition exposed alleged vote-chori with evidence that appeared genuine. Instead, what we got was a press conference by the Chief Election Commissioner dismissing the allegations with emotional statements like, "Do we need to provide CCTV footage and reveal the identity of our women voters?" This was not a convincing response to serious charges. As voters in Goa, we were taken for a ride once before when Congress MLAs defected to the BJP right after the elections. The bigger shock was that they were rewarded with prominent roles in the legislature instead of being penalized under the anti-defection law. The picture of democracy that we have been painting for years is now peeling away. The media and the judiciary must now participate actively to restore faith in the system and bring back accountability.
ALWYN FERNANDES, Benaulim
