Choosing 'No Vote' | Multi Seat Constituencies | Compulsory Voting

Choosing No Vote

A lot of us might have received the chain mail about choosing not to vote and suggesting that if the number of people who invoke the right to 49-o is more than the winning candidates vote count, a re-poll is ordered with something amounting to a permanent ban on the previous candidature.

I'm sure we'd have liked the idea, considering the huge disgust for our politicians , believing that it serves our non-serving politicians well. (Huh! Pun).

Well, Ladies and Gentlemen (and not children, because they can't vote!), that is not the right interpretation of Rule 49-O which the chain mail (or the person who started it) considers to be rule for such no vote.

Kind folk(s?) at 49-O - The Real Deal have taken the trouble of clarifying this to us. Here are the details -

What is Rule 49-O of the Conduct of Elections, in a nutshell?

There are a couple of different explanations that people have adopted to make sense of 49-O, the one we found most convincing was posted by a Lawyer based in Mumbai. I’ve tried to keep this as simple as possible, so as not to read like a government regulation.

Prior to 1992, India voted physically, not electronically. So every single vote was accounted for on paper, given the fact that the voter was signed into the polling station physically and a ballot paper with the selected candidate was physically accepted from him/her. Today, India votes electronically.

Now given the present scenario, a voter is physically signed into the station but votes privately, by pressing a button on the EVM (Electronic Voting Machine). What stops him from NOT pressing that button in the event that he doesn’t wish to vote for the contesting candidature. This STILL isn't where the problem lies. Now you have X number of people signed in, and X-1 votes. Nobody can trace who didn’t vote, hence that vote can be misused. It is for this reason that Rule 49-O exists. Via this rule, a voter is given an opportunity to sign a separate form (Form 17-A), and submit it to the presiding officer, thereby putting this decision on record. This clears up the haze when votes are being tallied.

And this is by far, the only purpose of Rule 49-o of the Conduct of Elections in India.

Thanks folks for the good work. There have been proposals for reforms of this rule, but things have not moved and there is a petition that is being planned to get things moving. Head over to the site and do your bit if you feel about it.


Multi Seat Constituencies

From this Wikipedia Page on Indian Election System -

The first general elections were conducted in India in 1951, for 489 constituencies representing 26 Indian states. At that time, there were a few two-seat and even a three-seat constituency. The multi-seat constituencies were discontinued in the 1960s.

Very well!

Compulsory Voting

Voting is not compulsory in India and in my opinion, it should be. That way, I would have gotten my Voter ID sooner.

In countries where voting is compulsory, here are the steps taken to ensure that everyone votes.

• Belgian voters who repeatedly fail to vote in elections may be subject to disenfranchisement.

• Goods and services provided by public offices may be denied to those failing to vote in Peru and Greece.
  

• If a Bolivian voter fails to participate in an election, the citizen may be denied withdrawal of his or her salary from the bank for three months.

• In Turkey, according to a law passed by the parliament in 1986, if an eligible elector does not cast a vote in the elections, he or she has to pay a fee of about 5 YTL (3 US dollars).

(Source)