CAST NEGATIVE VOTES IF YOU DONT FIND ANY GOOD CANDIDATE

An e-mail has recently been circulating in which it has been argued that section 49-O of Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 gives a voter the right to cast negative vote, i.e. right to cast vote but not to vote any particular candidate. It has also been stated in this e-mail that if the total number of “NO VOTES” exceeds the total number of valid votes, then that polling will be cancelled and there will have to be re-polling. Besides, the candidature of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people had already expressed their decision on them.

It is true that there is a section 49-O in The Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 in which voters have been given the right not to vote. Section 49-O says:

Elector  deciding  not  to  vote - If  an  elector,  after  his
electoral  roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters
in  Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon  as
required  under  sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to  record  his
vote,  a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in
Form  17A  by  the  presiding  officer  and  the  signature  or  thumb
impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

 http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/cer1.htm 

 
But there is no rule according to which if the total number of “NO VOTES” exceeds the total number of valid votes, then that polling will be cancelled and there will have to be re-polling. There is also no provision for cancellation of candidature of contestants or forfeiture of their right to re-contest.

It appears that many people believe that by not voting, all problems of corruption in politics will disappear. While we understand the desperation of a voter about the corrupt candidates, just casting negative votes cannot solve this problem. Since negative votes are not counted, the bad candidates would still be elected on the basis of whatever valid votes have been cast.

If, just for the sake of argument, it is assumed that everybody had cast negative votes, what would happen? Re-polling will take place and the same candidates will be eligible to contest election again! So there will be simply extra expenditure of tax payers’ money, nothing else!

In any democratic system, people will have to elect their representatives for governance. Not choosing any representative would be inviting only anarchy and chaos. Without elected representatives, who would run the government?

Hence, the solution lies not in rejecting all candidates, but in electing the best available candidate in each constituency.

I found this article  from following webpage http://jago.in/news.php?id=54