Boycott of Election and Candidates is a constitutional and legal right

[Chitta Behera]

Here is an Oriya article by me, which basing upon the existing constitutional and legal provisions, argues that in situations where attending a polling booth or voting for a candidate out of the given many goes against his conscience, he has the right to ‘refrain from voting’ and also to get his ‘decision not to vote’ recorded by the presiding officer. I myself had exercised the second option in general elections of 2004. But strangely enough, the intelligentsia, be they top-notch officials of Election Commission, party leaders, media persons, academia or civil society groups are found, as if actuated by some vested interests, to be indulging in one-sided propaganda about people’s right to vote, while keeping them in absolute dark about their equally sacrosanct right to refrain from voting and voting against all candidates at an election. The views expressed herein, though sounding eccentric, are as a matter of fact, sourced from such Establishmentarian, statutory sources as IPC 1860, Law Commission of India, Election Commission of India and Conduct of Election Rules 1961 besides global pool of experience from countries like USA, France and Russia. However, interpretations and opinions to the contrary are earnestly solicited from the esteemed readership. Looking forward to your learned response, Chitta Behera Mobile 9437577546

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[Dhanada Mishra]

Chitta bhai;

Wonderful article as usual from your pen. But how about the following
as a counter point. I have taken it from Jago Paty web site.

Dhanada

Truth about section 49-O (Right to cast negative vote)

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.

[Click on http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/cer1.htm to see the Rule.]


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.

Jago Party has now provided an option to choose a better candidate.


2009/4/7 Chitta Behera <chitta...@yahoo.co.in>: