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EVM hogs the limelight in Goa polls

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

Tired with the chore of voting every now and then, Goans would have happily given this election no more than a passing nod. But the electronic voting machine made all the difference.

Goa is the first state in the country to use EVMs in all the constituencies.

And post polls, more than political predictions, the magic of 'electronic' voting is the talk of the town.

Actually, because of its apparent simplicity, uneducated voters liked electronic voting more. "This is much better than the complication of affixing a stamp at the right place and folding the ballot paper without fault," said 65-year-old Vithu Naik, who is physically challenged.

Ninety percent of the voters found the exercise thrilling as they actually experienced what they had only read about or seen on television.

Polling officers also found the whole effort much faster and relaxing. Incidentally, machines had to be changed only in five places due to minor failures.

"But hardly any time was wasted in replacing them since we were well equipped to face any emergency," said Kewal Sharma, the chief electoral officer.

In one or two constituencies, workers of the candidate whose name was first on the machine, tried to confuse the voters by asking them to push the first button to start the machine, only after which actual voting could be done!

The people at large are quite fed up with frequent elections (the fourth in five years) as well as the subsequent defection games. Political analysts had actually predicted a low turnout.

That the voting percentage finally turned out to be 70 was thanks to the glamour of EVMs.

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