NONE OF THE ABOVE' (NOTA) ON THE ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES (EVMS)
Context: The Supreme Court asked the Centre and the Election Commission of India to respond to a plea that fresh elections should be conducted in constituencies where the maximum votes polled are NOTA.
- The petition said candidates ‘rejected’ by voters should not be fielded again in the fresh polls.
- Chief Justice said if voters kept rejecting candidates, Parliament/Assembly seats would continue to remain vacant, affecting legislative functioning.
Need of this move:
- Political parties choose contesting candidates in a very undemocratic manner without consulting electors.
- Many times people in constituency are totally discontented with candidates presented before them.
- This problem can be solved by holding a fresh election if maximum votes are polled in favour of NOTA.
- In such situation, the contesting candidates should be considered as rejected and not be allowed in fresh election.
- Right to reject and elect new candidate would give power to the people to express their discontent.
Right to reject’
- It was first proposed by the Law Commission in its 170th Report in 1999.
- The Election Commission had twice endorsed ‘right to reject’.
- ‘Background Paper on Electoral Reforms’ prepared by the Ministry of Law in 2010 had proposed that if certain percentage of the vote was negative, then election result should be nullified and new election should be held.
What is NOTA?
- The Supreme Court, upheld the right of voters to reject all candidates contesting the elections, saying it would go a long way in cleansing the political system of the country.
- Election Commission provided the option of 'None Of The Above' (NOTA) on the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and ballot papers in a major electoral reform.
How is a NOTA vote cast?
- The EVMs have the NOTA option at the end of the candidates' list.
- Earlier, in order to cast a negative ballot, a voter had to inform the presiding officer at the polling booth.
- A NOTA vote doesn't require the involvement of the presiding officer.
Why have NOTA if there's 'no electoral value'?
- The SC said negative voting would even encourage people who are not satisfied with any of the candidates to turn up to express their opinion and reject all contestants.
- Negative voting will lead to a systemic change in polls and political parties will be forced to project clean candidates.
- If the right to vote is a statutory right, then the right to reject a candidate is a fundamental right of speech and expression under the Constitution.
- The system of negative voting existed in several other countries. Even in Parliament, the MPs have the option to abstain during a vote.
Which other countries allow NOTA?
- Colombia, Ukraine, Brazil, Bangladesh, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Chile, France, Belgium and Greece allow their voters to cast NOTA votes.
- In 2018, the Supreme Court scrapped the use of ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) option in the Rajya Sabha elections it held that the NOTA option is meant only for universal adult suffrage and direct elections and not polls held by the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote as done in the Rajya Sabha.
1.png)
