Stage set for Assembly polls in Goa tomorrow

Panaji: With the the month-long campaign undertaken by various political parties for February 4 Assembly polls having ended last evening, stage is set for the elections in Goa tomorrow. There are 251 candidates contesting on different party tickets for the 40 Assembly constituency seats.

The main parties in the fray are BJP, Congress, Aam Adami Party (AAP) and grand alliance of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM) and Shiv Sena. According to sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), there are 11.10 lakh electorate as registered out of which 5.46 lakh are male and 5.64 lakh female.

There would be 1642 polling booths across the 40 constituencies. The election process in all the 40 constituencies in the state will be webcast and all booths in the state will have Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). One booth in all the 40 constituencies will be pink booth which will be manned by entirely women poll officials.

There are around 5.62 lakh voters in the state. There are 650 reserve polling booths, 14,000 persons, including election observers, in all constituencies, the sources said, adding there would be 1750 staffers monitoring polling through video cameras. Dry day, being observed from last evening, would continue till midnight tomorrow.

All liquor shops, bar and restaurants have been ordered to not to sell or serve liquor to the people during the poll period. State government has announced official leave tomorrow. The polling will start at 0700 hrs in morning and end at 1700 hrs in the evening. (UNI)