NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Breaking the previous voter turnout record, Taleigao constituency recorded 79.86 per cent polling bettering the previous 79.56 per cent voting in the 2012 assembly polls. Out of 27,859 voters, 21,524 cast their votes on Saturday.
No untoward incident was reported but voting came to a halt for around two hours at polling station no 37 in Vodlem Bhatt and polling booth number 14 at BSNL telephone exchange near Goa University due to the technical snag in voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines. Voting came to a halt at 9 am for almost two hours.
Till afternoon 1 pm, the turnout rose to 51.19 per cent with total vote count of 14,262 which stood at 8,769 at 11 am. Similarly, at 3 pm the turnout increased to 66.58 per cent and by 5 pm, 79 per cent people had cast their votes.
Senior citizens and people with disability could be seen entering polling stations to cast their votes. Around 17 first-time female voters came out smiling with the teddy bear gifted to them after casting their vote in ‘pink’ polling booth located at PWD in St Inez.
During afternoon, electoral office received a complaint over mobile phone about alleged distribution of cash by a Taleigao panchayat member at his house at Shankarwadi. But the flying squad that reached the spot could not enter his house as they were not authorised.
Though there was no issue with electricity, toilet and ramp at all the polling stations, most polling booths in Taleigao were without drinking water facilities as a result polling staff as well as police officials were forced to purchase water bottles from outside. No preference was given to women voters standing in the queue as directed by the Election Commission on sending two female voters after every male voter.
