Gujarat assembly on Saturday passed a bill making voting to municipal corporations, municipalities, and district, taluka and village panchayats compulsory. The Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009, also ratifies Centre’s suggestion to reserve 50% seats in all local bodies for women. Majority of them, including Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, will go to polls next year. BJP MLAs participating in the debate suggested those who do not vote should be penalised with denials of driving license or passport, or concessional bank loan, or government jobs.
The Election Commission of India has said it would not be "practical" to extend Gujarat's move on compulsory voting to all of India, but it is watching the situation "with interest". "The issue of compulsory voting has multiple dimensions, and it's for Parliament to legislate on this. As for the Election Commission, we think it's not practical to enforce 815 million-odd voters in a country as large as ours to compulsorily vote. Having said that, we would watch the Gujarat initiative with interest," Chief Election Commissioner Navin B Chawla said.
After getting the Gujarat Local Authorities Law (Amendment) Bill 2009 passed in the Assembly on Saturday, Chief Minister Narendra Modi had said the objective was to "bring the voter, rather than the political party, centrestage", and to "strengthen democracy". K J Rao, former adviser to the Election Commission, said compulsory voting "is a welcome idea, but it remains to be seen how it is implemented". On Saturday, Modi had said that "similar legislations had been adopted in as many as 32 countries". Rao, however, said "it is only in 19 out of these 32 countries that it was actually enforced, and only some of them like Belgium had provisions for punitive action for a voter's failure to cast his vote."
"There's a view that voting is a civic right, rather than a civic duty. Voter awareness drives are far more desirable," Rao said. EC officials said turnouts like 60 per cent in Naxal-hit Jharkhand and over 70 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh were "pointers to healthy democracy in India".
On Sunday, Modi's idea found qualified support in BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. Non-BJP parties like the Congress, and CPM have argued that forcible voting is antidemocratic.
The voters choice to reject all candidates -the so-called `none-of the-above option' -may, however, be a reality soon. An EC proposal to include this option in electronic voting machines is before the Parliamentary Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice. Gujarat too has emphasised on this option in its new law.
The Election Commission of India has said it would not be "practical" to extend Gujarat's move on compulsory voting to all of India, but it is watching the situation "with interest". "The issue of compulsory voting has multiple dimensions, and it's for Parliament to legislate on this. As for the Election Commission, we think it's not practical to enforce 815 million-odd voters in a country as large as ours to compulsorily vote. Having said that, we would watch the Gujarat initiative with interest," Chief Election Commissioner Navin B Chawla said.
After getting the Gujarat Local Authorities Law (Amendment) Bill 2009 passed in the Assembly on Saturday, Chief Minister Narendra Modi had said the objective was to "bring the voter, rather than the political party, centrestage", and to "strengthen democracy". K J Rao, former adviser to the Election Commission, said compulsory voting "is a welcome idea, but it remains to be seen how it is implemented". On Saturday, Modi had said that "similar legislations had been adopted in as many as 32 countries". Rao, however, said "it is only in 19 out of these 32 countries that it was actually enforced, and only some of them like Belgium had provisions for punitive action for a voter's failure to cast his vote."
"There's a view that voting is a civic right, rather than a civic duty. Voter awareness drives are far more desirable," Rao said. EC officials said turnouts like 60 per cent in Naxal-hit Jharkhand and over 70 per cent in Arunachal Pradesh were "pointers to healthy democracy in India".
On Sunday, Modi's idea found qualified support in BJP-ruled Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. Non-BJP parties like the Congress, and CPM have argued that forcible voting is antidemocratic.
The voters choice to reject all candidates -the so-called `none-of the-above option' -may, however, be a reality soon. An EC proposal to include this option in electronic voting machines is before the Parliamentary Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice. Gujarat too has emphasised on this option in its new law.
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