PANJIM: The Election Commission of India on Monday announced October 18 as the date for the by-election to fill the casual vacancy from 19-Valpoi Assembly Constituency in the State Legislative Assembly. The model code of conduct came into effect soon after the poll schedule was announced by the ECI.
The vacancy was caused after Mr Vishwajit Rane, the state Health Minister, who was elected as an Independent in the 2007 general elections to the state assembly, resigned his seat in the House and joined the Congress party. Mr Rane would be the official candidate of the Congress party from the constituency.
The notification for the elections would be issued on September 22, while the last date for filing nominations has been set as September 29. The scrutiny of nominations would be held on October 1 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature has been set for October 4. Counting of votes would be held on October 21 from 8 a.m. onwards.
The election would be held as per the pre-delimited electoral rolls of Valpoi constituency. January 1, 2010, would be the qualifying date for inclusion of names in the rolls, which have been revised and published on September 14, 2010. The Commission has decided to use Electronic Voting Machines for the by-election in all the polling stations and adequate number of EVMs has been made available. The ECI has decided that the voter’s identification would be mandatory during the by- election at the time of poll.
Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) would be the main document of identity of a voter. However, in order to ensure that no voter was deprived of his/her franchise if his/her name figures in the electoral rolls, separate instructions would be issued to allow additional documents for identification of voters at the time of poll in this by-election.
The Model Code of Conduct would be effective in the district in which the whole or any part of the assembly constituency going for by-election was included. The code would be applicable to all candidates, political parties and the state government. It would also be applicable to the Union government as far as this state was concerned.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat has said that the party was fully geared up to face the elections and ensure the victory of Mr Rane by a huge margin of votes. Mr Rane on the other hand said that he would approach the electorate with the work he has done for the people, youth and women in his constituency. He expressed full faith in the people of Valpoi constituency even as he said that he and the government have done a lot to develop the constituency in the last three years as the representative of the people of Valpoi.
The Health Minister, who quit his seat in June this year, said that his main plank would be development of the constituency and women empowerment and also the employment opportunities created for the youth of the constituency. He further said that he would prefer not to criticise the opposition and its candidate during the electioneering. The president of Goa Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr Subhash Shirodkar has said that that everything has been set to ensure the election of Mr Rane. He said that he knew that the people of Valpoi were with Congress and Mr Rane and the work done by Mr Rane and the government in the constituency would ensure that Mr Rane would have a cakewalk. (NT)
1 comments:
How will the people and the individual members of their families elect any good representative, when each of them rushes to grab the sumptuous pre-election quota of rice, sugar, ghee, beans etc. being distributed by the politicians in the ring? Will these people care for your appeal to vote for honest man?
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