Thursday, April 16, 2009

Lok Sabha Elections 2009 & Rule 49-O (No Vote)

Posted by Murugavel Ganesan 1 comments

What do you do when all the candidates in your constituency are corrupt/unreliable/thugs/goondas and when you decide not to vote in favor of any of them? Unfortunately there is no such provision in our electoral process and this rule (49-O) is highly misunderstood and misinterpreted!

Rule 49-O is a rule in The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961[1] of India, which governs elections in the country. It describes the procedure to be followed when a valid voter decides not to cast his vote, and decides to record this fact.

WARNING: The apparent purpose of this section is to prevent the election fraud or the misuse of votes.

Checkout this Wikipedia Article and related links to further understand this. As a note of warning, if you ask the electoral officer about this clause and if you disclose the fact that you do not wish to cast your vote you are actually disclosing your secrecy of ballot :-)

Comments 1
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Murugavel Ganesan
Is a Semiconductor & Electronics professional who works for a major semiconductor R&D center in Bangalore, India. He is currently the Founder and Editor-in-chief @ The Digital Electronics Blog a blog dedicated to Semiconductors and Electronics. He feels that only the willingness to debate and respect other’s views keeps the spirit of democracy and freedom alive. He advocates Freedom of speech and opinion!

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