1961 Election Rules, Section 49-o

Don’t shy away from voting if you feel that there is no use voting, or feel pessimistic about the whole exercise. Shying away from voting is not right. It is not just your right to vote but also your duty as a citizen to vote. Most of the educated often complain about the Government policies but shy away from voting. The real voting is done by the poor and illiterate people who are lured away by false promises the politicians make or rather the hope of getting a meal, money or a false promise of freebies like TV sets, super subsidized food grain…

The 1961 Election Rules, Section 49-o provides the voter the option of registering that he/she doesn’t wish to vote for anyone. However this needs to be expressed at the time of voting in the booth and not before. The problem of course is that along with many of us the election officers are also actually not aware of this. And no political party publicises this fact, it is up to the Election Commission to make the voter aware of it.

49-O.   Elector  deciding  not  to  vote.-If  an  elector,  after  his electoral  roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in  Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon  as required  under  sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to  record  his vote,  a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form  17A  by  the  presiding  officer  and  the  signature  or  thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

In some cases the Electronic Voting Machines do not feature a button for this option given the number of candidates contesting the election. So this option is to be registered with the election officer at the booth, now this arises the secrecy factor of the ballot.
Despite of problems, this type of voting is useful for the following reasons:

• When you want to vote but don’t like any of the candidates.
• When the percentage of the voters who voted under 49-o is greater than the percentage of voters of the winning candidate, the election commission calls for re-election in the constituency and none of the candidates who stood initially can stand as they have already been rejected by the voters.

Just imagine the king of response this will generate if there is a re-election I such a case, the media will hog the limelight and the political parties will actually think twice before fielding any candidate for the polls which may result in better candidates.

Just spread awareness regarding this Section 49-o and possibly we can lend a hand in change.

Election Rules: http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/cer1.htm