Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Elections to the 40-member Goa legislative assembly will be held on February 14, while counting will take place on March 10. Over 11.56 lakh eligible voters will exercise their right to vote to elect their new representatives.
With the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcing the poll schedule for Goa and four other states- Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand- the model code of conduct has come into force with immediate effect.
Goa will go for polls along with Punjab and Uttarakhand, so also Uttar Pradesh will have its second phase of polling on February 14.
The notification for polls will be issued on January 21. The nomination filing will begin with issuing of notification. The last date of filing a nomination is January 28, while scrutiny will take place on January 29. If any, the withdrawal of nominations will take place on January 31.
The counting will take place on March 10.
ECI Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra announced banning all political rallies, road shows, bike rallies, padayatra, vehicle rallies, or other political rallies until January 15 in view of rising COVID-19 cases.
“The situation will be monitored thereafter,” he said, adding that the weekly positivity rate in Goa is above 30 per cent.
ECI has issued a campaign curfew from 8.00am to 8.00pm till January 15. It has also banned corner meetings as well as victory rallies. ECI has appealed to Political parties to have campaigns through digital/ virtual mode.
The door-to-door campaign is restricted to only five people.
With focus on go COVID19-free election, Chandra said that all election officials and employees will be considered as frontline workers and all eligible officers will be vaccinated with a ‘precautionary dose’.
He has also appealed to voters to ensure that they are vaccinated with both doses.
Our cVIGIL application should be used by voters to report any incident of violation of the Model Code of Conduct, distribution of money & freebies. Within 100 minutes of complaint, ECI officials will reach the place of offence:
It is mandatory for political parties to upload detailed information regarding individuals with pending criminal cases selected as poll candidates on their website. They will also have to give a reason to select the candidate.
As COVID cases soared in view of Omicron variant, ECI held meetings with Union Health Secretary & Home Secretary, experts, & health secretaries of States. After taking these views & ground situation, ECI decided to announce polls with safety norms in place.
A total of 18.34 crore electors including service voters will take part in this election out of which 8.55 crore are women electors.
24.9 lakh first-time electors are registered in the 5 States including Uttar Pradesh.
ECI has mandated that at least one polling station managed exclusively by women shall be set up in every Assembly constituency. Our officers have identified much more than that. There’re 690 Assembly seats, but we are setting up 1620 such polling booths.
EVMs and VVPATs will be utilized in all the polling stations. Election Commission has already made arrangements to ensure an adequate number of EVMs and VVPATs for the smooth conduct of elections.
Senior citizens above 80 years of age, persons with disabilities & COVID19 patients can vote by postal ballot: CEC Sushil Chandra on 5 States polls.