Panaji, Feb 14 (UNI) Goa registered 78.94 per cent of voting for the 40 assembly constituencies which went for polls on Monday. According to Chief Electoral Officer Kunal, it was a tentative figure and polling percentage could cross 80 per cent after counting of postal ballots. While Sanquelim constituency witnessed highest 89.64 per cent of polling, followed by Benaulim constituency with 72.2 per cent of voting. North Goa recorded 79.84 per cent polling while South Goa saw 78.15 per cent voter turnout.
A total of 94 EVMs and 12 VVPATs were replaced during the single phase voting in the state. A total of 11.6 lakh electorates were eligible to decide the electoral fate of 301 candidates, including 26 women. Out of 301 candidates, nine were SC while the rest were general candidates. The electorate included 298 service voters, 9,590 persons with disabilities (PwDs), 29,797 over 80 years of age, 41 sex workers and nine transgenders. The average number of eligible voters per booth in the state was 672. The Vasco Assembly constituency had the highest number of 35,552 eligible voters, while the Mormugao seat had the lowest number (20,412).
Postal ballots were issued to 15,474 officials and 13,115 to absentee voters. Mr Kunal said there were 1722 polling stations and 1171 polling locations. There were 106 polling stations and 56 model polling booths. There were 21 general observers, nine expenditure observers, 5 police observers, 310 micro observers and 2 special observers. As many as 10,495 polling personnel were deployed for poll duty. As part of the election expenditure monitoring, Rs 6.65 crore cash, liqour worth Rs 3.5 crore, gold or silver worth Rs 0.02 crore and drugs worth Rs 1.275 crore were seized. There were 74 cases of Model Code of Conduct violations registered by the different squads formed by the Chief Electoral Office, he said. The results will be declared on March 10 along with fours other states.
