Team Goemkarponn
PANAJI: With the Zilla Panchayat elections scheduled for December, the State Election Commission (SEC) has begun preparations by appointing Deputy Collectors and Mamlatdars as Returning Officers (ROs) and Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) for the upcoming polls. The term of the current ZPs will end in the first week of January 2026.
According to the notification, Deputy Collectors and Mamlatdars will oversee constituencies within their taluka limits. The SEC has also initiated the process of dividing North Goa and South Goa ZPs into 25 single-member constituencies each. District Collectors will serve as Electoral Registration Officers, while Mamlatdars will assist with delimitation.
The electoral roll of the Goa Legislative Assembly, updated as of January 1, 2025, and published on January 6, 2025, along with additions and corrections made up to July 1, 2025, will form the basis for preparing the ZP territorial constituencies.
In a separate development, the SEC has disqualified Emie Leonora Fernandes, panch member of St Lawrence Agassaim village panchayat, for alleged financial irregularities. A complaint lodged by former panch Hilary Pereira in October last year accused Fernandes of misusing panchayat funds.
The SEC, after inquiry, found that during her tenure as Sarpanch, Fernandes had sanctioned cheque payments to herself and ten other panch members for drain desilting and bush cutting works, amounting to misappropriation of public funds.
