Panaji, Feb 14 (UNI): Polling to elect representatives at all the 40 seats of the Assembly ended on Monday evening.
The polling, which started at 7 am, ended at 6 pm. Till 5pm, 75.29% voting was reported in the state, the Election Commission officials said.
According to the Election Commission officials, polling was held at 1,722 polling stations in South Goa and North Goa districts. This time, 80 more polling stations were added for the single-day polling, compared to the 2017 Assembly elections.
A total of 11.6 lakh electorates were eligible to decide the electoral fate of 301 candidates, including 14 women. The electorate included 9,590 persons with disabilities (PwDs), 2,997 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 35,139 eligible voters, while the Mormugao seat had the lowest number of voters at 19,958.
This time there were 105 all-women polling booths, also known as pink booths. Though the polling was slow during the morning, it picked up momentum as the day progressed.
Himachal Pradesh Governor Rajendra Arlekar, Goa Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Goa unit President Sadanand Shet Tanavade, Revenue Minister Jennifer Monserrate, Panaji MLA Babush Monsserate, Power Minister Nilesh Cabral, Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho, Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar and Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat were among the prominent persons, who cast their votes.
In South Goa, Congress is expecting to do better, while BJP may have the upper hand in North Goa. However, former minister Michael Lobo, joining Congress may hit the prospects of the ruling party to some extent.
