Demand for negative voting echoes on web

By M H Ahssan

While political parties are busy with campaigning, a different campaign is brewing in cyberspace. And this one isn’t about voting for candidate A or B but about the negative vote which gives voters the option to reject all candidates in a given constituency.

A campaign on a social networking site to include, ‘Vote For None Of The Above’, on the EVM menu is attracting vociferous support. “When we go to vote, we are limited by the choices provided,” says former journalist Sharif Rangnekar who started the online group. His post reads: “Why can’t we express our unhappiness and disgust at the options. While voting is a democratic right, the right to say we want ‘none of the above’ should be an option available to us. Will our political class give us this option?”

Echoes of this sentiment can be heard across websites. The right to a negative vote is being viewed as a demand for more accountability from government. In desicritics.org, Sandeep Bansal says, “The negative voting option has the potential to bring about changes to the overall political system just like RTI is bringing about changes in our bureaucracy,” he writes.

On chalo.net, users cross-link on the issue so that the information on negative voting keeps growing. Similarly, on vmohanty.com, author Vimoh explains some legal aspects, again linking to news sites to ensure surfers get to the bottom of the matter. The blog, Voice of India, says ‘Negative Voting: empower us asap, can not wait!’ and calls the idea ‘’revolutionary’.

With conventional ballot papers, a voter could drop a blank sheet or stamp wrong to cancel or nullify the vote. That was an indicator of the voter’s disillusionment with the choice given. But the EVM has no such option. An elector can now refuse to vote after being identified but that defeats the purpose of a secret ballot. A negative vote takes the matter a step further by ensuring that a voter can choose ‘none of the above’.

Variants of negative voting exist in other countries. Nevada state in the US offers a negative vote option. In 2006, Massachusetts included ‘None of the Above for a New Election’ as an option. This means that this set of candidates will not be able to contest in the next polls.

In Europe, Switzerland, Spain, France and Belgium offer a blank vote option. These votes, though not stamped in favour of any candidate, are counted. In a way, they are protest votes because they are not in favour of anybody. There is some action in India too. In a petition, supported by EC and now with a Constitution Bench, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) has said that negative voting could help check criminalisation of politics. The topic has prompted wide-ranging views. BJP’s Sudheendra Kulkarni says that it is the democratic right of a voter to choose ‘None of the above’. ‘‘But in that case, voting should be made compulsory,” he says.

However, political scientist Imtiaz Ahmed is against it. “Democracy involves selection from available choices. Asking for a ‘Vote For None Of The Above’ option is a negation of the democratic principle,” he says. Ahmed admits that there are criminals in politics. “But it is extremely unlikely that every candidate in the list is a criminal,” he says. Nonetheless, the popularity of the campaign shows that the issue has touched a chord among voters.