Should voting be made compulsory in India?

[Daredevil]

Gujarat has taken the first major and ground breaking step in Indian politics by making voting mandatory in elections for local bodies in the state which will make the democratic elections more representative and reflect true aspirations and choice of the people. Should other state governments and Indian government follow the suit and make voting compulsory in the state as well as general elections.

What do you feel are advantages or disadvantages of making voting mandatory in elections at all levels?. What should be done with voters who don't exercise their vote in elections?. Should their voting rights and other privileges be revoked?.

Voice your opinions.

Gujarat passes mandatory voting bill

December 19, 2009 19:33 IST

Gujarat government on Saturday moved the controversial 'The Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009' in the state assembly which will make voting compulsory in all local body elections of the state.
With this, Gujarat became the first state to introduce such a law in the country.

Speaking on the bill, state urban development minister Nitin Patel termed the move as pioneering and aimed at making democracy more representative and meaningful.

The Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009 amended the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corp Act 1949, the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963 and the Gujarat Panchayat's Act 1993.

With state assembly passing the bill, it will become mandatory for all registered voters in Gujarat to vote and those absent will be summoned by the local election officer to submit a valid reason for being absent with proof within a month.

The new rule applies to the elections to all seven municipal corporations, 159 municipalities, 26 district panchayats, 223 taluka panchayats and in 13,713 village panchayats of the state.

The new amendment empowers the election officer to declare people who do not cast their vote as defaulter voters and subsequently, the government will decide on the action to be taken against the defaulters.

 

[A chauhan]

Good move !! but declaring defaulter voter and later process would be highly expensive & time taking making it unaffordable. Defaulters voters should not be punished seriously but a nominal affordable penalty should be imposed on.Practically possible for Gujarat which is one the most rich & developed states of India, but for other backward states it is currently not applicable.I think it should be decided on the basis of literacy rate and income per person of the concerned states.But i think some of the states should follow it e.g. Haryana, Punjab and Maharashtra.

 

[S.A.T.A]

Complete nonsense...'compulsory' voting will not make the ensuing result representative in any form.People may have various reason not to vote and coercing a voter to the polling booth will not necessarily lead to the voter casting 'valid vote'.....

Utterly stupid move

 

[atleast_a_bronze]

I was just thinking of how the government is going to punish me if I didn't vote deliberately.
What if i don't buy ration for the unbelievably low quality rice, don't go to government run hospitals for the awe(ful)some treatment they provide, don't work for any govt enterprise, don't depend on the govt for any of their "welfare" or "goodies" like free color tv(what the heck?) How would i get penalized for non attendance?

I think if at all a law is made to this effect, the only people who could rejoice are the policemen. It would be a bumper time for them who can just add one more law as an excuse for their brave corruption acts.

The outcome of our election is that a lalu or a mayawati is going to be elected and is going to earn all money. Why should I be a party to this looting drama of election.
The election itself is staged with money paid by me as taxes. Isn't that contribution of mine more than enough?

I think rather than making voting compulsory, the government should make it compulsory that people stand only in 1 seat per head in an election to avoid wasting my tax money.
How about a law for compulsory attendance of our babus in legislative assemblies and parliament?

I'm not being sarcastic. I'm just trying to understand this concept of compulsory voting.

All said, I don't miss an opportunity to vote when I'm in my voting area. But I don't see any sense if the government wants to enforce it on the individuals.

By the way, I'm just curious to know how many of us honestly know the name of our local MLA and his/her major contestant in the most recent local elections (leave alone knowing his/her achievements)

 

[Flint]

I support the move, but only if they include an "abstain" option, for obvious reasons.

 

[nitesh]

I support this move if it has an option of voting "no candidate suitable for the post" and it should be counted as a vote in case if this vote is greater then other acceptable vote then the election has to be held again and those candidates should not be allowed to stand for election.

 

[Armand2REP]

Mandatory voting = bad idea. There are plenty of people in all societies who are not educated enough on the issues to make an informed decision. They have no business going to the polls and they know it. They don't care who wins since nothing will likely change, and forcing them to lose work will only piss them off.

 

[sob]

Completely agree with Nitesh.

If voting is compulsory then the electorate should have the right to an independent option also -- NONE OF THE ABOVE.

It is not compulsory that we have to be forced to go in and vote for one of the Scoundrels.