bihutoli Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 I've heard Australia has a compulsory voting system? How does this get enforced? I like the idea of enforcing something like that in India. This is the one democratic obligation we citizens have over a five year period (usually) and still many of us try and avoid voting. I think this will benefit India immensely in the long run. For one, once we are held accountable for our democratic responsibilities, we'd probably also be more aware of our democratic rights.
DomainK Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 You can't make the horse drink water. The idea sounds brilliant, but is not practical. The sheer population makes it impossible. If you make voting compulsory, there has to be punishment for this and then there has to be provision where a citizen with a genuine reason (a fatal accident in the family etc) should be excused. Then you need competent authorities that can hear the case out and determine whether the reason for not voting was genuine or not. You need qualified professionals there otherwise there will be injustice and corruption. The country's legal system is already overburdened with backlogs, can they handle another few crore cases for not voting? Besides, the idea of compulsory voting is contradictory to the idea of freedom. If some people do not want to vote, in a democracy, they should have that right. One just hopes that the decision to not vote is more based on reason and because of laziness.
f.b.m Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 Looking forward to the next Tamil Nadu elections...
Mariyam Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 I've heard Australia has a compulsory voting system? How does this get enforced? I like the idea of enforcing something like that in India. This is the one democratic obligation we citizens have over a five year period (usually) and still many of us try and avoid voting. I think this will benefit India immensely in the long run. For one, once we are held accountable for our democratic responsibilities, we'd probably also be more aware of our democratic rights. It is a good idea on paper, and while there maybe (and this is also debatable)some benefits that come with compulsory voting, one has to ask the following question: Does compulsory voting infringe upon an individuals' freedom of expression ( freedom of choice)? IMO, We are accountable for our democratic responsibilities, when we exercise our choice to vote or not. Ideally, voting should be looked as some sort of haloed duty, by the citizenry. But coercing a person to carry out his/her sacred duties makes it lose its sanctity. In India, its the educated, middle class and upper middle class segments who have the lowest of all voter turnouts. Do we need legislation to coerce educated, seemingly well off and balanced people into voting? Or should it come naturally to them? From personal experience, almost none of my friends vote. For them its just a holiday and an excuse for a 1 day out of city excursion. There is general apathy towards the election. On the other hand, almost all of the people who work in our factories or the housemaid, cleaner etc and their families make it a point to vote, even if they have to wait in long queues for hours. And they do it with pride. Just looked up statistics on the 2009 elections. Of an estimated 714000000 people who were eligible, 60% i.e 428000000 people voted. That is almost 29 crore people who did not vote. :omg: Are you going to file that many cases? :cantstop: I don't think this can be enforced at all. In fact, we've a hard time collecting income tax from all eligible citizens. That is something which fills the coffers of the govt., and its not upto the job. Enforcing voting is going to be a drain on GoI resources, why do you expect any kind of efficiency?
Ram Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 The ability to boycott elections or the right not-to-vote is as sacrosanct as the right to vote. If i am dissolusioned with all the candidates in the race, I should have the option to not vote for any of them. However, we should do all that we possibly can to increase voting percentage. My personal experience is that by and large, Indian people are quite excited by the prospect of voting and why wouldnt they be? Its a rare chance for us to have a say in a system that otherwise completely marginalizes us. But the sheer logistics - going to the polling stations, queing up for hours on end, threat of election-day violence is some locations, weather etc definitely turns some people off.
DomainK Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 Just looked up statistics on the 2009 elections. Of an estimated 714000000 people who were eligible, 60% i.e 428000000 people voted. That is almost 29 crore people who did not vote. :omg: Are you going to file that many cases? :cantstop: Probably some of them even vote in the reality shows, but not for the country.
hari504504 Posted January 18, 2012 Posted January 18, 2012 Probably some of them even vote in the reality shows' date=' but not for the country.[/quote'] noone's queuing up for hours to vote in a reality show. Maybe once the project for unique identity number for each Indian reaches some kind of maturity, they may start exploring implementing an eplatform for voting in paralell with the conventional process. this should help with increasing the voter turn-out.
bihutoli Posted January 19, 2012 Author Posted January 19, 2012 29 crore people not voting is incredulous. That's almost the entire population of the United States which is the third most populous country in the world. We really need to do something about ensuring more people vote. The freedom to not vote for any candidate in the fray should be in the ballot paper really imo. You need to at least go to the poll booth to exercise that freedom. A no-show really should not count. However, I concede compulsory voting may practically not be possible in our country. And our policy makers probably don't care about the poor voter turnout, since the system works well for them. What this country needs is a couple more major scams imo, or god forbid a recession.
DomainK Posted January 19, 2012 Posted January 19, 2012 My colleague once pointed out something interesting. The election was on a Thursday and he pointed out that most people made it a four-day vacation by taking the Friday off and went away to some nice place with family.
bihutoli Posted January 19, 2012 Author Posted January 19, 2012 Gujarat has passed a compulsory voting legislation obliging voters to vote for local body elections, or obtain a waiver from polling authorities by informing them of the decision not to vote before hand itself. Worldwide around 30 countries have implemented compulsory voting policies with various types of penalties for not voting, including fines (Australia), temporary loss of voting rights (Belgium), revocation of the voters identity card, or ineligibility for things like driver's licenses (Greece) etc. We should be jugadu enough to come up with something ourselves.
DomainK Posted January 19, 2012 Posted January 19, 2012 ^ Not voting does not necessarily amount to rejection of democracy. In a way, it does contribute. May be we should translate it better to add value. May be on each ballot, there should an option of "none of the above" and every vote not cast should be automatically counted as "none of the above". The calculation of majority or mandate should then take the "none of the above" into account. For a candidate that will mean 29 crore votes going against him. If you do that, the political parties will take it upon themselves to inspire people to go and vote. They will spend their own money and launch campaigns awareness campaigns. You want to win, you better get people to come and vote.
bihutoli Posted January 19, 2012 Author Posted January 19, 2012 Being a free individual in a democratic country means the right to reject democracy as a political system. Forcing people to vote perpetuates the democratic political system. Any law that forces people to formally participate in a political system they are opposed to is in clear breach of personal liberty. This is really a whatabouttery argument. I'll be godsmacked if more than a handful of people do not vote because they reject democracy as a political system. Also, there are obligations. It's not like I can reject my obligation to pay taxes just because I don't like it.
bihutoli Posted January 19, 2012 Author Posted January 19, 2012 ^ Not voting does not necessarily amount to rejection of democracy. In a way, it does contribute. May be we should translate it better to add value. May be on each ballot, there should an option of "none of the above" and every vote not cast should be automatically counted as "none of the above". The calculation of majority or mandate should then take the "none of the above" into account. For a candidate that will mean 29 crore votes going against him. If you do that, the political parties will take it upon themselves to inspire people to go and vote. They will spend their own money and launch campaigns awareness campaigns. You want to win, you better get people to come and vote. Since political parties are responsible for passing the law, you can safely rule out THAT ever happening. I think rather than imposing penalties, there should be perks for voting. Maybe like saying your election id card will be a valid id proof only if you give evidence of having voted.
gult Posted January 19, 2012 Posted January 19, 2012 Giving the voter cards with proper names etc.. would be a good start before making voting compulsory. Long time back, I applied for a card at my home town and later online etc.. didn't get any ID card. How can I be forced to vote?
DomainK Posted January 19, 2012 Posted January 19, 2012 Giving the voter cards with proper names etc.. would be a good start before making voting compulsory. Long time back' date=' I applied for a card at my home town and later online etc.. didn't get any ID card. How can I be forced to vote?[/quote'] My card came with mistakes. After three attempts they finally gave me a card with the correct details.
bihutoli Posted January 19, 2012 Author Posted January 19, 2012 A handful of people don't run a bloody naxalite movement for decades across vast swathes of Indian territory. There are MILLIONS in India who couldn't care less about democracy and its power structures. Time for you to get a reality check! You should have specified that you were talking about accomodating naxalites and terrorists in the start imo.
Mr Know All Posted January 20, 2012 Posted January 20, 2012 Sab chor hai bhai. And I don't want to vote for "least corrupt".. Because Its not a choice.. So voting should not be compulsory. Instead of bring a chor to power I will use the holiday to chillax with my buddies
f.b.m Posted January 20, 2012 Posted January 20, 2012 Sab chor hai bhai. And I don't want to vote for "least corrupt".. Because Its not a choice.. So voting should not be compulsory. Instead of bring a chor to power I will use the holiday to chillax with my buddies This. I dont know why anyone with even the slightest bit of self respect would give their stamp of approval to someone who even the voters will admit, will marginalize them (probably less than the other guy they'll say). Besides, there is a reason why people dont vote: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKkV2FMaLOY]Rational Ignorance: The Problem of Voting and Democracy - YouTube[/ame]
ravishingravi Posted January 20, 2012 Posted January 20, 2012 Everything Australian feels right now, doesn't it ?
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