It refers to private member’s ‘must-vote’ bill moved in Lok Sabha by BJP Parliamentarian Janardhan Singh Sigriwal desiring compulsory voting. Earlier also Gujarat government tried for a similar move to ensure increased voting-percentage overlooking the fact that many voters do not go for voting because they do not find any candidate fit for being voted. Compulsory voting has been tried in several countries like Chile, Fiji, Guatemala, Italy, Netherlands, Phillipines, Spain, Venezuela, and Austria, but had to be later abandoned because it was not found feasible. In countries like Bolivia, Costa-Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Gabon, Greece, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay and Mexico where provision though exists, but is not enforced.
Motive behind the bill is to increase voting-percentage is good, but it will lead to dictatorship and in no way improve quality of elected representatives. Most voters not going for voting do so because they do not find any candidate suitable for being voted. Unfortunately ours has become system where voters have to chose between bad and worse, rather than good and better! Best is to convert theoretical ‘None-Of-The-Above’ (NOTA) option in practical ‘Right-To-Reject’ but with riders in a manner that political parties may be compelled to field only good candidates. In the recently held elections to Bihar state-assembly, NOTA registered important third place in elections to 38 out of the total 243 constituencies. Significantly NOTA also became an important decisive factor in 50 constituencies where victory-margin was less than votes received by NOTA. About two-percent of total voters opted for insignificant NOTA further establishing frustration of voters from candidates put before them for selection.
Central government in consultation with Election Commission should experiment ‘Right-To-Reject’ (RTR) where re-election may be held in case NOTA gets maximum votes with all candidates getting votes less than NOTA being disqualified for life to contest any election in future even in constituencies where NOTA might not have got maximum votes. However to avoid chain of re-elections because of NOTA getting maximum votes every time, NOTA-button may be disabled in case of re-election caused because of NOTA getting maximum votes. ‘Right-To-Reject’ (RTR) will make political parties put good persons as their candidates.
