MARGAO, May 13 -- Team Herald

The Administrative Tribunal has invalidated the elections to the Managing Committee of Comunidade of Verna, ruling that presiding officials violated mandatory open ballot requirements under the Code of Comunidades. In the judgment, Tribunal President Dvijple V Patkar upheld the appeal filed by Adv Savio J F Correia, who had contested for the post of President.

The Tribunal held that the electoral process was compromised when the Presiding Officer distributed ballot papers randomly rather than sequentially by serial numbers, effectively conducting a secret ballot instead of the statutorily mandated open ballot system.

"The violations of the mandatory requirement of open ballot go to the root of the election...