18.4.10

Gujarat governor returns compulsory voting bill

Gujarat governor Dr Kamla has returned unsigned the Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009, which had sought to make voting in all local self-governing bodies compulsory. While returning the Bill — passed by the Gujarat state assembly in December 2009 — for reconsideration, the governor has cited three set of reasons. The first objection is, compulsory voting is a violation of Article 19 of the Indian Constitution, which gives Indian citizens freedom of speech and expression. The second one relates to the provision which seeks to punish those who do not turn up to vote, also considered violation of the fundamental freedom of citizens. And the third one is on failure to implement compulsory voting in different parts of the world. A senior state official said, “The governor has also advised the state government to come up with a new law, dropping the Bill’s provision of compulsory voting even as preserving the Bill’s provision on 50% reservation for women in the state’s local bodies.” The state government has instructed preparation of all local body polls, to take place between October and December 2010, on the basis of 33% women’s reservation. “We haven’t yet thought of what to do with the returned Bill, whether to separate the provision for 50% women’s reservation from the Bill and pass it as a separate law,” state urban development minister Nitin Patel said.

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