From 50 Years Ago: Goa: One More Election

Goa: One More Election

There seems to be a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the election in Goa. This could be because this is only a parliamentary poll with no contest for the Assembly, although there was the same sense of phlegmatism during the March 1967 general election. This is in marked contrast to the fervour and passionate feelings aroused by the opinion poll in January 1967 when both the protagonists and the antagonists of merger with Maharashtra (Gujarat in the case of Daman and Diu) were very keen to express their views. In the referendum about 80 per cent of the electorate cast their vote and of these 54 per cent were for the continuation of Union Territory status while 43 per cent opted for merger. A more plausible reason for the political apathy in Goa, Daman and Diu could be that the electorate has not yet realised the potential power of the vote to influence decisions which affect the general population, as there have been only two elections in the area after the ending of Portuguese rule in December 1961. And unlike in what was British India, in Portuguese India there was very little effort to set up representative institutions.