Assembly elections in Goa saw a record 83% turnout on Saturday, higher than the 82.2% recorded in 2012.
Constituencies with multiple contests and several political parties in the fray, witnessed very high polling. The State recorded 15% polling in the first two hours of voting which began at 7a.m.
No untoward incident was reported in the State, with peaceful polling in all 1,642 booths, apart from minor delays or temporary suspensions at a few booths due to malfunctioning of EVMs or voter verified paper audit trail introduced across the State.
While polling was rescheduled at one booth in Margao town of south Goa, in another polling booth in Vasco, EVM malfunction led to a suspension of voting for around two hours. EVM failure was also reported at a third booth in Cortalim in South Goa, poll officials said. Among the early voters were Defence Minister and former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar who cast his ballot in Panaji in the same booth as rebel RSS leader Subhash Velingkar. The latter’s Goa Suraksha Manch is contesting the election in alliance with MGP and Shiv Sena against the BJP. Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar also turned up to vote in his coastal constituency of Mandrem, north Goa, within minutes of polling opening.
The Election Commission successfully tried out several of its polling reforms including VVPAT.
Each constituency had a special pink polling station, managed entirely by women, where first time women voters were presented a pink teddy bear, first time male voters a pen and other voters a rose added to the charm of election day
