| Font Size |
Ram Gopal Sharma doesn’t know what the Election Commission’s Manual of Election Law looks like. So he has never had to turn to Page 72, where, at the bottom, is an innocuous detail that goes by the name 49(0).
But as he walked up to the polling booth on Saturday morning, he ran the rule over in his head: walk up to the presiding officer, sign the register, ask for Form 49A and say he would like to vote for: nobody. That’s what Rule 49(0) does-the closest Indian voters can get to negative voting.
According to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, an elector can refuse to vote after he has been identified and necessary entries made in the register of electors. The EC has no data on the number of people who have used the rule because these “votes” are not counted and there have only been stray incidents of activism so far. But those who believe in the Rule say 49(0) gives people a powerful right: to say ‘No’ without boycotting the democratic process. They hope, at least theoretically, that with better awareness among voters, 49(0) will force political parties to put up better candidates.
According to the Election Commission, barely 2 to 3 voters used Rule 49(0) to not vote in favour of any candidate in the Delhi assembly elections. The Youth for Equality, conducted an online awareness campaign to “rid the system of bad roads, corrupt politicians and unfair reservation”.
All of that by not voting? Isn’t that taking utopia to the polling booth?
But VS Sreedhara, who voted under the Rule in the recent Karnataka assembly elections, is willing to believe in, what he calls a hypothesis: “Someday, if the people who turn out not to vote are more than the number of votes a winning candidate gets, if not anything else, it will serve to embarrass the winning candidate.”
But Prof Jagdeep Chokkar of the Association for Democratic Reforms, whose organisation has been pushing for electoral reforms, thinks there should be better and easier ways to express dissent — maybe a “None of the above (NOTA)” option on the EVM or a winning limit of “50 per cent plus one” votes. “Rule 49(0) is self-defeating because the person who uses it has to be so motivated as to stand in a line, wait for his turn and then say he is not voting.”
Discuss this story on expressindia forums
|
|
This is not practical because there is no secrecy. All candidates know you have not voted for them. The winner is likely to take revenge.
I think including a button in EVM is a better option and if vote count of No-one in the list is bigger then votes to winning member, Election of that particular region should be dismissed and all the candidates should be rejected, Now only new candidates can participate in reelection process.
In the democratic process everybody should participate in casting vote. An elector can refuse to vote after he has been identified and necessary entries made in the 'Register for No Vote' of electors in presence of Presiding officer and that should be counted as 'No vote' and remaining for 'Yes vote'. Actually, 'No vote' generaly favours to siting Candidate or Rulling candidates depriving opposition and indulging 'undemocratic' process. Recent years, so many unwanted candidates get win the seats due to boycot the positive democratic process.
If some body does not want vote, why should he be required to go to a polling booth?There should be a provision whereby a voter can send his option by post.
Consider this on a huge basis... India is a huge country. If even the 30% of the citizens of India do not want to vote, can you imagine the huge number? And then... try to imagine about the 'post' system. It is very easy to say things... but very difficult when it comes to executing! Leave alone the financial sides... they are the monster cause...
see