Over half of electors vote in Goa by afternoon

, April 12: Over half of the electorate voted Saturday in

by early afternoon to elect two Lok Sabha members, officials said.

Nearly 54 percent of Goa's 1,057,499 voters had cast their ballots since polling started at 7 a.m., said officials.

According to the poll officials, 283,109 voters cast ballots in North Goa, while in South Goa 289,179 voters had exercised their franchise till 1.40 pm. No poll-related untoward incident has been reported as yet.

Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has predicted that the state would witness around 65 to 70 percent voting. Voting started at a brisk pace, with long queues at polling stations across Goa.

All the four key contestants cast their ballots within half-an-hour of the booths' opening.

Parrikar cast ballot at the Massan de Amorim polling booth in the capital. He said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would win both seats and that voters have come out in large numbers to vote out the corrupt Congress-led United Progressive Alliance.

"Goa does not see lines like these in the Lok Sabha election otherwise," Parrikar said.

The chief minister also described the Congress's condition as a "desperate party" that is about to lose power.

Voting in Goa ends at 6 p.m.

A total of 1,622 polling booths have been put up.

The main contenders for the North Goa seat are sitting MP and BJP candidate Shripad Yesso Naik, Congress candidate Ravi Naik and Dattaram Desai from the Aam Aadmi Party.

Aleixo Reginaldo from the Congress and BJP's Narendra Savoikar will fight it out for the South Goa seat.

The Congress party has won this seat in 10 out of 14 Lok Sabha elections.