from daijiworld's special correspondent (MB)
Panaji, May 5 ( Saturday, 3 pm IST): An average of less than 10 per cent polling was reported during the first two hours in the panchayat elections in Goa Saturday.
The voting was peaceful and hardly any queues were seen at the polling stations in rural Goa. The elections are being held for 185 panchayats.
"Initially, the voting pattern was very slow. We expect that it will pick up by afternoon or late afternoon," State Election Commissioner P M Borkar told.
The polling is being held in 851 stations to elect 1,429 panchayat members out of 5,650 contestants.
As many as 6.89 lac voters are eligible to cast their votes for the elections which will decide faces to represent grassroots level democracy in the coastal tourist state.
Interestingly, female voters will hold the key in the election as they outnumber their male counterparts.
There are 3.46 lac female and 3.43 lac male voters for these polls, Borkar stated.
The term of the panchayats had expired on January 31 forcing the state government to appoint sarpanchs as administrators pending elections.
The counting will be taken up on May 7.
Electoral officials
Officials, and police on guard
Vehicles ready on panchayat duty
Election material being taken to the booths
Earlier report (Friday) and pics from Rajtilak Naik
Hectic preparations
Elections to the 185 village panchayats in the state will be held on May 5. All the possible preparations have been completed ahead of the polling for the panchayats in the State. There are nearly 100 panchayats in the North Goa district in the talukas of Tiswadi, Bardez, Pernem, Bicholim, Sattari and Ponda and more or less same in South Goa namely Salcete, Murmagoa, Quepem, Sanguem and Canacona.
The 11 officers appointed by the State Election Commission as observers for the eleven talukas for general elections to the 185 village panchayats of Goa are as follows.
Pernem – T S Sawant, Administration Director, Directorate of Education
Bardez – N D Agarwal, Director Social Welfare
Bicholim - Vijay Paranjape, director women and child development
Sattari – N S Navti, chief executive officer South Goa Zilla panchayat
Tiswadi – Elvis Gomes, commissioner of Corporation of the City of Panaji
Ponda – C D Gawde, deputy director of panchayats
Salcete – Narayan Sawant, project director, District Rural Development Agency, South Goa
Mormugao – Y B Tavde, chief officer, Margao Municipal Council
Sanguem – Gopal Parsekar, chief officer, Curchorem-Cacora Municipal Council
Quepem – Sandhya Kamat, deputy director of panchayats, South Goa
Canacona – Prasad Lolienkar, director of art and culture.
The polling will be held from 8 am to 5 pm. State election commissioner P M Borkar has assured that the panchayat elections would be free, fair and peaceful.
The Run-up: