“I opted not to vote as I am not convinced with none of the candidates”. But did this decision of my not voting really made any difference & stop the undeserving candidates from not being elected. NO IT DID NOT. Then I am looser as any how the uneducated & corrupts is going to be my leader.
We conscious & educated citizens of India need to realize that our votes matter. But we need not vote the undeserving. The choice need not always be with one undeserving candidate & the other. We can also go & vote none & say we want re-election with fresh new candidates. Its time we realizes we the CITIZEN’s of India are quite powerful & can deny the undeserving privileged people the responsible positions in our lives & rule us.
The Conduct of Elections Rules of India, 1961, Rule 49-O is a rule, which governs elections in the country. Although this is not our Constitutional right, the rule prescribes the procedure when a voter decides not to vote any of the candidates & record the fact. The apparent purpose of this section is to prevent the election fraud or the misuse of votes.
The rule reads as follows: “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 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.”
The ballot paper / Electronic voting machine (EVM) contains only the list of candidates, a voter cannot record his vote under Section 49-O directly maintaining the secrecy. Thus it violates the secrecy of the ballot paper, since he has to inform the presiding officer at the election booth. However, with paper ballot a different method is used to “waste” ones vote, which is stamping on multiple candidates. In fact this was the standard method of giving null votes without violating secrecy before the advent of the EVM. With EVM no such option of voting to multiple candidates can be done. Thereby one has to follow the procedure of approaching the preceding officer……
However, the Election Commission of India has proposed that the ballot paper or the EVM to have a column after all the names of the candidates representing “none of the above” to enable voter to reject all the candidates and maintain secrecy of the ballot as.
Russia allows voters to vote “against all” candidates.
It’s important for us to know & remember that “SECRECY” or “NO SECRECY”, we can VOTE TO NONE/AGAINST ALL CANDIDATES. As of for the time being, since such voting are very few in number, they are hardly ever considered, but I am sure if the informed citizens will start using it, such votes will be taken into consideration & we can demand for appropriate candidates instead of corrupted candidates. Every change has to be started some where, if this has not been done earlier at least now we can come together to voice our opposition for inappropriate people to be our leaders.
Weconscious has come up by combining two words “WE” & “CONSCIOUS”. Thereby meaning, we the people who ought to be conscious about our rights & duties. We Conscious is a pious effort to highlight, show, and educate people of the various monsterheads of corruption, moral degradation and gross civic negligence that are rampant in our society. It’s an effort to highlight the illegalities we suffer on day to day basis.