15 pc polling in first 3 hours despite rain in Goa

Panaji, June 2 (UNI) Fifteen per cent of the 10.1 lakh electorates exercised their franchise in the first three hours of polling for 40-member Goa Legislative Assembly without any untoward incident, despite rain hitting the island state.

''In fact, rains helped us conduct peaceful polling so far with the electorate co-operating with the election machinery,'' said Chief Electoral Officer of Goa Ramesh Negi.

Cumbarjua and Mayem in North Goa recorded the highest of 16.74 per cent and 15.94 per cent turnout respectively in the first two hours, followed by 13 per cent in Taleiegao, he said.

A UNI correspondent, who visited several booths in the hypersensitive Taliegao Constituency, witnessed the UGDP candidate and former minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate and his BJP rival Agnelo Silvera clashing with each other over helping senior citizens even as an armed policeman tried to pacify them at ''Auxilium'' polling station.

At another polling station, people queued up with umbrellas over their heads to protect themselves from the rain with no shelter available in the polling station.

In most of the polling stations, videographers engaged by the election commission were busy on their job. But at one of the booths, one of the videographers was seen shooting surreptitiously what was going on inside the booth.

As rains abated after 1100 hrs, more voters were seen rushing to the booths to exercise their franchise.

UNI