Electoral reforms: right to reject, right to recall

[Vijay.Sharma]

Right to reject: As I understand, it is a mechanism by which the electorate can express their dissatisfaction of the candidates in the fray. The electorate votes for the "candidate" named something like None Of The Above. If the candidate None Of The Above receives the maximum votes in the constituency then there will be a re-election and in the new poll none of the previous candidates will be allowed to contest since the electorate has already rejected all of them by choosing None Of The Above. Right to recall: This is a post-election practice. If the electorate feels that their elected representative ain't performing then they can exercise the option of firing him. This happens before the full term is completed although logistical and other modalities will need to be defined, for ex - how will the recall poll be conducted, when will it be conducted, what will happen if an elected rep is recalled i.e. who takes over, etc. Your thoughts...

[WC2011INDIA]

It's a great idea, but there is no way in hell the political parties will accept these demands.

[punjabi_khota]

Spamming in poll options FTW

[Cricket Tragic]

What a poll

[yoda]

I demand a Right to reject and Right to recall Poll Options. :hitler:

[jaggadaku]

why did you stop at 2019? did you run out of max no of poll options?

[Desi Cartman]

Its going to create a lot of mess. All netas who will FAIL get a ticket from their parties will try and mess it up by rigging and/or by campaigning for the Reject option.

[Rahul Dravid]

im gonna look thru these poll options when i have another insomnia attack. thanks OP.

[Sidhoni]

Poll options spamming

[ganeshran]

Right to recall is totally impractical in our democracy. The right to reject should be implemented. I thought it was already there in the form of Rule 49-0

[Pagalpanti]

It will never happen.

[maniac]

As long as people will vote for Biryani Packet,Desi Daru and 100 rs notes...No reform will have an impact. Since your Poll is a hypothetical situation,let us assume that in 50 years from now our govt will ensure all sections of the society are educated and can think on their own than your proposal for the reform would be an amazing idea.

[urbestfriend]

Indian public is not mature enough for both RTReject and RTRecall. We mustn't even think of implementing this as this can lead to anarchy, and this can be easily misused by political parties. Currently a vote is traded for 500rs, imagine a candidate giving 1000 rs for rejecting an opposition candidate, our public will be in queue to reject however decent and good he is. Instead there are other methods of Electoral reforms which has to be implemented like 1) Minimum qualification for MP's . At least a graduation must be made mandatory. Even Pakistan has this minimum requirement. 2) Inability to contest election if he is found guilty of bribery / criminal offense by high court or supreme court. 3) Internal democracy must be made mandatory for all the parties.

[Vijay.Sharma]

Right to recall is totally impractical in our democracy. The right to reject should be implemented. I thought it was already there in the form of Rule 49-0

Yeah that's what even I thought but apparently they haven't included a "None of the above" option in the ballot papers and hence it has not been implemented. So all the EC needs to do is to print the ballot papers with that option from now onwards. Question - since section 49 is already there, what is stopping the EC from including the option in the ballot papers? Do they need parliament to say "ok you can include it" even though 49 already exists?

[Vijay.Sharma]

As long as people will vote for Biryani Packet' date='Desi Daru and 100 rs notes...No reform will have an impact.[/quote']

[ganeshran]

It has a few other questions as well, which I guess is stopping the EC from implementing it. 1) What is the threshold percentage of rejection above which the election is null and void. 2) Do we allow the same candidates to stand in reelection? If not, then further time is needed for new candidates to file nominations. Should the remaining results be held up till the rejections elections get over 3) A significant percentage (~30%) of rural population cannot read and write. What should the election sign be for this option on the EVM?

[maniac]

You really believe that majority of people continue to vote for such sops. I remember Karunanidhi's party in the recent assembly elections gave away Laptops, no less, and they still lost emphatically. Sir, don't you think that you are being a little too precious here? I mean so what if people are not literate, most of india is educated (I differentiate literacy and education...one can be educated even without having the ability to read or write. Ppl like Mohd the Prophet, Narayana Murthy's mother (as he claims she is well educated although hardly 5th pass), my late grandma, I am sure many of your relatives too would fall in that category). Why is there this feeling in us Indians that most of our countrymen are useless fellows but we (i.e. my circle of urban literate and upper middle class fellows) are more or less coherent? Agree on both these points

Mohd.Azharuddin-enough said Govinda,Chiranjeevi-Do people even look at what kind of policies and political agenda these guys have before voting for them?Being telugu ,Chiranjeevi was my idol growing up but me and my entire family voted for Loksatta party headed by J.P.Narayan-A qualified IAS officer and an intellect with atleast some sort of a vision.How many votes did JP's party get compared to Chiranjeevi These are just some higher level examples...there are so many other who win elections by influencing people on Communal and Caste lines..Do you think if you contest for elections in old city area of Hyderabad against MIM you will win with a name like 'Vijay Sharma' despite having more ideas for development than their own leader. In a perfectly functioning democracy your ideas hold a lot of value but in a complex democracy like ours I am afraid it doesn't find a place

[yoda]

Right to recall is dangerous. Here in California, there was a recall of a governor in the middle of his term, not because he did anything illegal, simply because the opposition successfully did a petition mid-term to initiate a recall and then voters joined them cause they thought the choice they now had was better than the sitting governor. There should be a process to remove a person in office (like it happened in case of Raja), not by middle of the term recall by voters though. Regarding Right to reject, that's kind of weird. How can voters reject someone who has been declared eligible other than voting for someone else?

[maniac]

Adding to what I said...In ghettoization(Don't know if it is the right word to use) of voters andclusters of voters catering to a certain section of the society the idea of right to reject becomes totally obscure because voters will feel more secure with their impotent leader than choosing none of the above and living in fear

[Desi Cartman]

How about making voting compulsory ? We have this in Aus and its works fine, people who dont go out to vote get a fine and if they believe that they dont like ANY of the candidates then they can tell the official that they are refusing to vote but for that they still need to visit the polling booth.