ELECTOR's RIGHT NOT TO VOTE

THE CONDUCT OF ELECTIONS RULES, 1961

An important rule reads:

49-O.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 the 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 17-A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

It is known that legal jargon irritates many enthusiasts who wish to know about the law. I thought as a law student, awareness in law is a forte that I can effectively pursue, and maybe is a duty of mine too. It is with this view in mind that I have started writing this blog. I was wondering what is that topic that should be the first in this blog. The choice was evident and simple. We all know about the campaign that went ahead after 26/11 about voting, and it being a responsibility of every Indian. However, I am sure that this small aspect of the rules governing voting in India is known to very few people, and I thought it would be ideal for me to start my blog with this information.

The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 governs conducting of any elections in the country. According to Rule 49-O, an elector has a right not to vote.

At the outset, let me clarify that this is not a right to negative voting. There was a petition filed before the Supreme Court about negative voting, but the same has not been allowed. So the concept of negative voting does not actually exist in India. However, this right of 'not to vote' has its own implications. An elector, according to this rule, has the right to register himself in a polling booth, but still not cast his vote, and the non-casting of the same is recorded, with the elector's remarks which is made by the presiding officer.

This means that every time when we hear complains that whom can we choose when everyone is a 'black-sheep', we have a choice not to choose anyone, but still make a record of the same. It is also important to realize that what happens if in a polling booth, majority have denied to cast their vote for anyone? Would that mean that the candidates contesting from that constituency do not get elected at all?

Well, this was a hoax that was circulated. This provision does not mean that the candidates in a constituency are not elected if such non-votes are more in number. However, the number of such non-casted votes are available under Right to Information. The Law Commission has recommended that in Electronic Voting machines, a separate column is maintained to choose 'none of the above', but it is yet to be accepted and amendments made therein. But shouldn't an elector have the right to vote against all candidates if he chooses to?

Well, I know that with the information that I have provided, it must not be very encouraging to pursue 49-O, since it hardly creates any consequences. However, it does create an awareness that when every sheep in the herd is black, you have the right to choose none of them. It also assures that your vote would not be misused by anyone, when you have chosen not to cast a vote yourself.

For my very precious readers, I have a few links that would provide even more reading material.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/49-O : Wikipedia can be trusted to have informations about everything. It does have information about 49-O too. Interesting reading material available.

http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/cer1.htm : This is the complete Rules. It would also give an insight about how conduction of elections work, for anyone who is interested to find out about the whole scheme of giving of tickets, and such other issues.

http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/PROPOSED_ELECTORAL_REFORMS.pdf : This is the .pdf version of the complete recommendations made by the Election Commission as regards many reforms in the election proceedings, inclusive of recommendations for neutral or negative voting. It is an interesting read.

Well, I hope to arouse a little interest in everyone who has been skeptical about legal jargon, in matters or law, so that basic knowledge about efficacious remedy is available to everyone, even without going to a lawyer for their expert views.