Panaji: Bombay high court has directed Election Commission (EC) to decide on an application seeking registration of a new regional political party, Goa Congress Party, by Nov 30, after considering objections raised by Congress (Indian National Congress).The high court accepted the statement of EC counsel Gaurish Agni that the chief electoral officer for Goa will complete the process of verification of 20 affidavits of persons who are supporting the new proposed political party by Oct 9.Agni said that EC forwarded the application and annexures to Goa CEO on Sept 25 for CEO’s office to confirm the existence of and residential addresses of the 20 persons from North and South Goa, who supported the application. After CEO completes this verification, a report will be submitted to the EC officer for a decision, he said.Accepting this statement, HC directed CEO to complete verification of the applications by Oct 9 and directed EC to dispose of the application seeking registration of the new proposed political party by Nov 30 after giving adequate hearings to Francisco Gouveia and Girish Chodankar.HC questioned the delay by the commission in deciding the application which was made in June, saying the term of the assembly will be ending and that a party has to be given time to organise itself for it to be a fair election. Agni said that the proposed party’s documentation was not in complete order until the end of Aug. He said EC receives 500 applications each year for registration of political parties and that processing these applications is an ongoing process every day, but the court asked EC if the term of assemblies in any other states from where such applications are filed is expiring soon.Agni said that elections in Goa won’t be held before Feb as per his understanding. HC was hearing two petitions, one by Gouveia seeking directions to EC to consider his application for registration of ‘Goa Congress Party’, and another by Chodankar, state Congress president, over EC’s failure to respond to representations objecting to registration of the political party as it could confuse voters because of its similarity to Congress.
