Navelim resident files petition against inclusion of service voters on rolls

PANAJI: Navelim resident Inacio Estevam Vas, on Thursday, filed a writ petition in the High Court of Bombay at Goa with the chief electoral officer and the electoral registration officer of Navelim Constituency as respondents.
In his petition he stated that the electoral rolls prepared for Navelim constituency for the 2017 state assembly elections were not in accordance with the law and that they had been manipulated by allowing a large number of service voters to be enrolled by misinterpreting the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, to benefit the ruling party.
“It appears that the verification process, as required under the act and the rules framed thereunder was not done by the booth level officer. The names were added based on the list furnished by the commandant of 3 MTR or some other persons. There appears to be a concerted and deliberate move to get the said voters enrolled, which is a significantly large number, and this could materially affect the outcome of the election,” he stated. tnn