[Assam] Of Compulsory Voting

[Chan Mahanta]

Barking up the wrong tree again.

Of course India needs another unenforceable and 
meaningless law like it needs a another hole thru 
its head.

What the writer should have attempted to draw 
attention to was to make the ritual of desi 
elections meaningful: Issue based and informed.







At 10:21 AM -0700 8/29/07, Dilip/Dil Deka wrote:
>Published in the Sentinel.
>Does India need more unenforceable laws? The article analyzes the flaws well.
>==========================================================
>Of Compulsory Voting
>ND Sharma
>Congress member V Narayanasamy introduced in the 
>Rajya Sabha on August 24 a private member’s Bill 
>seeking enactment of a law to make voting in 
>elections compulsory in India. He argues that 
>Australia, Belgium, Argentina, Greece, Mexico, 
>Singapore, Switzerland, Brazil and a host of 
>other countries have compulsory voting laws. In 
>Bolivia if a person does not vote, his three 
>months’ salary is withdrawn as a punitive 
>measure, according to him.
>Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami had 
>also some time back favoured a law to make 
>voting compulsory in India. Participating in a 
>panel discussion after the last Uttar Pradesh 
>Assembly elections, he had expressed anguish at 
>the voters’ apathy and pointed out that there 
>were as many as 33 countries in the world where 
>compulsory voting was in place.
>Laudable though the idea is, it is highly 
>unlikely that it can be effectively translated 
>into practice in India with its huge population 
>and over 85 crore of its inhabitants eligible to 
>vote. With all the resources of the Central and 
>State governments at the disposal of the 
>Election Commission, this august body has never 
>been, so far, able to enlist all the eligible 
>voters or ensure that some of the voters do not 
>figure in more than one list. In spite of its 
>painstaking exercise before every election, the 
>Election Commission has had to cope with 
>numerous complaints at the time of polling.
>It is only wishful thinking that having an Act 
>for compulsory voting will miraculously change 
>the things. If such a law is enacted, where 
>shall we get the massive manpower to ensure 
>enrolment of all eligible voters, keep their 
>track at the time of voting and prepare and send 
>summons to those who fail to turn up at the 
>polling booths? It will also mean further 
>clogging of the courts — already burdened under 
>the monumental backlogs?
>Perhaps a more realistic approach to the problem 
>will be to link enrolment as a voter with 
>incentives and disincentives. Today being (or 
>non-being) a voter virtually amounts to nothing, 
>unless one has an inclination to contest an 
>election or is keen to support a particular 
>party or candidate. The voting right of Shiv 
>Sena Supremo Bal Tahckeray was suspended by the 
>court as punishment for his inflammatory 
>speeches/writings. How did it affect him or his 
>activities in any way?
>If enlistment as a voter is made necessary for, 
>say, procuring a passport, getting a ration 
>card, buying or selling a property, opening a 
>bank account, applying for a job, getting one’s 
>children admitted to a school or college and 
>such other things, it will diametrically change 
>the attitude of the people. Now the government 
>employees assigned by the Election Commission to 
>update the voters’ lists rarely receive a 
>courteous reception when they visit the 
>households. Sometimes they are even treated in a 
>cavalier manner by the people.
>However, this will all change if being a voter 
>is linked with incentives and disincentives. 
>Then it will be the individuals who will take 
>the trouble to see that they are enlisted as 
>voters. Once they take the trouble to ensure 
>that their names are on the voters list, it will 
>affect them psychologically and it is likely to 
>shed at least part of their “apathy” at the time 
>of polling, of which N Gopalaswami has 
>complained.
>However, this alone is not enough to enthuse the 
>voters to go to polling booths and cast their 
>votes. The faulty election laws and the 
>reluctance of the authorities to effectively 
>enforce even those laws, permitting thugs and 
>cheats and swindlers to enter Parliament or 
>Assemblies, have made the average voter in the 
>country highly cynical.
>(Manuj Features)
>
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