What Is NOTA – None Of The Above Option?
You
like the candidate you press the button in front of the party’s symbol to vote
on electronic voting machines. Now if you do not like the entire list of
candidates you have an option of NOTA or ‘None of the Above’. Voters have all
rights to press this option if they wish to reject all the political parties
contesting the elections. So instead of sitting at home just go and show your
wish.
Earlier
the citizens of India were not provided with the option NOTA but in 2009 the
Election Commission stated its desire to the Supreme Court to add NOTA at the
ballet. Government opposed NOTA as this was one of the ways to dilute the
number of votes. On the contrary the Supreme Court of India ordered to add the
option on 27 September 2013 with a belief that it will definitely increase the
number of voters. The orders were passed by a bench headed by Chief Justice P
Sathasivam.
In
2014 Lok Sabha elections 814million people are eligible to vote for 543
constituencies in 9.3 lakh polling stations and for the first time NOTA will be
introduced in the Lok Sabha elections. Though objective of adding this option
was to give clean candidates and to increase the overall quality but according
to experts NOTA is not able to fulfill this objective as there is no change in
the quality of fielded candidates. For the past two decades number of criminals
in politics have been increasing. 30% of Members of Parliament (MPs) elected in
2009 had pending criminals charges against them such as rape, dowry violence,
extortion, violence against women etc. According to the survey conducted by the
National Election Watch and the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR) in
2014, one out of every three candidates of the BJP and Congress has criminal
charges against them. 35% of the BJP’s candidate and 27% of Congress candidates
have criminal charges against them.
Social
activist Anna Hazare has appealed the voters to use NOTA button if they are not
able to find right candidate. He said that our political system won’t change by
changing the party. If one candidate has done graduation in corruption the
other has done post graduation. He called alert voters the pillars of
democracy.
Las
year more than 15 lakh people out of 11.53 voters i.e. near about 1.31% in the
five state assembly elections used the option NOTA. In Delhi, 49,730 voters
used NOTA option, close to 3.56 lakh voters used it in Chattisgarh, in Madhya
Pradesh 5.9 lakh and in Rajasthan 5.67 lakh voters exercised the option of
NOTA.
Though
providing NOTA is really a good move but it is useless if not analyzed
properly. First of all NOTA votes will be considered as invalid votes. The
candidate with greatest number of votes will be considered as a winner even if
he or she has the lower number of votes than NOTA unless other political
parties sought for fresh elections. So ‘None of the Above’ option won’t have a
significant impact. But this condition must be analyzed properly and NOTA must
be taken seriously. It must be found out that why people have opted NOTA when
they have so many other choices. This means political parties are unable to
find and project the suitable and right person.
Where is
the NOTA Buttons on the electronic voting machine?
NOTA is
the last button in the list of candidates. It is read as None of the Above –
NOTA.
As a voter I feel that NOTA is just like a
dislike button on social media. But experts must analyze the quality in case
NOTA number is significant. If it is left as it is then there is no use of this
powerful ‘None of the Above’ option.
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एक टिप्पणी भेजें