Pollsters cannot force voters who refuse to vote in polling booths: EC
At a time when the Election Commission is promising to make every effort to bring eligible voters to polling stations to exercise their franchise, not many voters are aware of their right to refuse to vote even after registering their identity with Chairman.
That right, which is separate from the provision to vote under NOTA, can be exercised under the ‘Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961 Rule 49-O’, which sets out the little-known option for voters to abstain from voting even after they have reached the polls. stand.
While the NOTA (None Of The Above) option allows voters to express their lack of confidence in any of the candidates seeking a mandate, the ‘refuse to vote’ option allows a voter to ignore the electoral process in its entirety avoid.
The 49-O clause directs the Presiding Officer that whenever an elector refuses to vote in a booth after verifying his credentials, the officer must make a note to that effect at the time of registration in Form 17A and the signature or thumb impression of the elector must be are placed. be obtained against such a comment.
This is not a new introduction to rights. It’s been around for a while. However, voters have very little idea of this. Most people are not aware of this option, a senior EC official told PTI.
Abstaining votes would obviously play no role in influencing the outcome of the election and the candidate who obtains the highest number of valid votes, regardless of his margin of victory, would be declared elected, he clarified.
On whether the EC would increase voters’ awareness in this regard, the official said, “No such plan currently exists.”
He underlined the advantage of Rule 49-O, stating that the rule provided the opportunity to reject all candidates while controlling spurious votes.
European Commission statistics show that in the 2019 general elections across India, 1,389 votes were rejected for other reasons (at the polling station).
However, it could not be determined whether these votes were partially or completely rejected for people exercising their rights under Rule 49-O.
The rule states that if a voter, having duly entered his electoral roll number in the electoral register, Form 17A and duly taken his signature/thumb impression, decides not to vote, he will not be compelled to cast his vote. .
In the form, instead of ‘Under Rule’, links without a vote or ‘Refused to Vote’ are inserted for those voters who want to leave without voting after signing the voter register, the form said.
In the event that the assignment button on the ‘Control Unit’ of the EVM, which prepares the voting unit for recording a vote, is activated when a voter refuses to vote, the Presiding Officer or the Third Electoral Officer shall instruct the next voter to proceed to the polling booth to record his/her vote, the polling station official noted.
However, if the assignment button has been pressed to release voting on the voting unit when the voter refuses to vote, the presiding officer must restart the control unit by turning off the power and disconnecting the VVPAT before the machine can vote. can accept. next vote, he said.
The power must be turned on after the busy indicator turns off and the close button becomes functional to close the poll, he explained.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
First print: March 28, 2024 | 1:05 PM IST