PANAJI: The long delay between campaigning and voting, and the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, are expected to act as dampeners on Saturday when Goa goes to elect new
Zilla Panchayat bodies. Election officials and an online poll conducted by TOI seemed to indicate that the voter turnout will be much lower than the 66% recorded in March 2015.
Though the state election commission has put in place health and safety guidelines in view of the
Covid pandemic, the lack of clarity about the implementation of these guidelines may keep people away. While most medical professionals reserved their comments about the idea of holding
elections during the pandemic, they did stress on safety norms.
“The election can go on provided everyone wears a mask. Keep a safe distance and sanitise before voting and after voting,” said Dr Anil Mehndiratta, chest physician and former president of the Indian Medical Association - Goa.
“People should maintain safe distance and if good ventilation is maintained in the rooms, I don’t think voting should be a problem. The zilla panchayat elections turnout is small anyway,” he said.
A random poll conducted by TOI showed that close to 45% of the respondents would not cast their vote due to apprehensions of contracting the virus.
“They will definitely keep a sanitiser, but we don’t know what else will be done to protect voters. The worry is that someone could get Covid. But if one does not vote then somebody else may win because of that one less vote,” said Calangute resident Severine Remedios.
The poll also showed that 32% of the respondents said that the candidates for the
ZP elections are unsuitable and that candidates tend to switch allegiance after the elections.
“The time between campaigning and elections is long and many people have forgotten about the elections. Turnout will be low because unlike earlier, there is no ‘josh’, there is no campaigning,” said a political watcher. Campaigning ended in the third week of March before the polling was deferred indefinitely in view of Covid. On December 5 the state election commission announced December 12 as the poll date with no additional days for campaigning.
At the training sessions for poll staff, talk about a low turnout also did the rounds
Government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said that the pandemic has disrupted the availability of polling officials with several staff members dropping out.
“The turnout will definitely be low,” said a general observer for North Goa. “Another issue that we are facing is that many polling staff are cancelling for various reasons. We had to recruit more staff and train them.”