Former CEC advocates compulsory voting

December 28, 2009: The Hindu

–  It cannot be implemented overnight but a beginning has to be made

–  There should options of negative voting or rejecting all candidates

AHMEDABAD: The former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), N. Gopalaswami, has advocated making voting compulsory in all elections in the country.

Even as the Election Commission was sceptical about the Gujarat Assembly’s move to make voting compulsory in all elections to the local self-government bodies in the State, the former CEC favoured compulsory voting across the country.

Mr. Gopalaswami, a former IAS officer of the Gujarat cadre, appreciated the State Assembly adopting a Bill to this effect during its winter session last week.

He was in Vadodara to attend the ongoing diamond jubilee celebrations of the Baroda Medical College organised by the Alumni Association.

A myth

Speaking on “election and democracy,¶ Mr. Gopalaswami disagreed with the view that making voting compulsory would make things difficult for rural voters who were considered “ill-informed¶ about voting rights or were often moved out of their native villages in search of work elsewhere. He said it was a myth that the illiterate or rural people were less enthusiastic about voting as compared to urban voters.

Different experience

The experience in a large State like Uttar Pradesh was different as it was found that voting was around 15 per cent more in rural areas than in the urban ones, Mr. Gopalaswami said. Acknowledging that some of the 32 countries which had made voting compulsory had to retract their steps later, he pointed out that three countries had successfully implemented the rules to this effect.

Giving the example of Australia where voting was made compulsory some 100 years ago, he said now “every Australian thinks that voting was his or her duty.¶ The country registers over 95 per cent turnout in every election. Mr. Gopalaswami said such rules could not be implemented overnight but a beginning had to be made to create a general conscience.

He said if voters did not like any candidate in the fray, they should be given the options of negative voting or rejecting all the candidates, but at least the voters would go to the polling booths and register their choice or the lack of it.