NOTA will become a meaningful means of negative voting only if it becomes a ‘right to reject’ rather than being a symbolic instrument to express resentment as it is now. Comment.
Refer – The Hindu
IAS Parliament 6 years
KEY POINTS
· NOTA was introduced in India following the 2013 Supreme Court directive for the purpose of safeguarding the secrecy of the voter who votes for Rule 49 “O” of the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961.
· However, NOTA in India does not provide for a ‘right to reject’, which results in the candidate with the maximum votes wins the election irrespective of the number of NOTA votes polled.
Right to reject
· It attributes to cancel the elections, when NOTA exceed other contestants and a re-election will be taking place with new contestants.
· E.g. Columbia is the only country where, if the blank vote gets a majority (50%+1), the election needs to be repeated (only once more) and the earlier candidates in the invalidated election cannot stand again.
Plausibility of right to reject in India
· The fiscal burden in conducting elections stand as a major hurdle to implement right to reject.
· Reserved constituencies have seen a relatively larger number of NOTA votes, which points to the continued social prejudice against political reservation for SC/STs.
· If we go for right to reject principle, it will be a major setback for minorities.
· Constituencies affected by left-wing extremism have used NOTA as an instrument of protest against the State itself.
· In India, most of the election process is conducted by teachers and defence forces.
· If we introduce the right to reject, it will divert these precious resources frequently in to elections and consequently affect the nation as a whole.
NOTA – other than just dissent
· It increases public participation in the electoral process, which is fundamental to the strength of democracy.
· It would foster the purity of the election process by eventually compelling parties to field better candidates.
· It would prevent a bogus vote put in place for a person who is absent on the election date due to the lack of dissent option earlier.
Recommendations
· Good governance, which is the motivating factor behind the right to reject, can be successfully achieved without causing the complications introducing the right to reject will entail.
· Efforts should instead be made to implement the already existing provisions on decriminalising politics and increasing political awareness; and introduce other provisions such as inner party transparency and election finance reform.
Manav 6 years
Please review.
Manav 6 years
IAS Parliament 6 years
