Gujarat being the first state in India where voting will become mandatory to all the registered voters of the state with the bill (Declaring voting compulsory) getting approved by the state assembly. Registered voters in Gujarat who are absent will be summoned by the local election officer to submit a valid reason for being absent with proof within a month, absentisum without a valid reason will result in voter being declared as defaulter.
This is a good initiative from the state government to strengthen the democratic process by brining all the registered voters to election booth. State government also plans to forward the same bill to the central government so that the same status quo can be implemented on a national level.
The reason for making voting mandatory might be many. There is a low the turnout of voters to discharge their duty in most of the election, because of which the true spirit of the will of the people is not reflected in the electoral mandate. It is mandatory public holiday whenever there is an election, but people hardly exercise there option; instead they sit at home and enjoy the holiday. Government spends a huge amount of money in conducting the election process and low turnaround of people result in higher expenditure of acquiring each vote.
People on the other side have there own reasons for not casting a vote. They feel that nothing is going to change by there vote and they can’t bring a change in the system. But imagine if there is 100% turnaround of people then the real picture of election process will emerge and the winning candidate will have a clear mandate from the people, fake voting will be a passé, expenditure per vote made by government will come down and a clear mandate from the people will help in forming a stable government at each level.
This is a good initiative from the state government to strengthen the democratic process by brining all the registered voters to election booth. State government also plans to forward the same bill to the central government so that the same status quo can be implemented on a national level.
The reason for making voting mandatory might be many. There is a low the turnout of voters to discharge their duty in most of the election, because of which the true spirit of the will of the people is not reflected in the electoral mandate. It is mandatory public holiday whenever there is an election, but people hardly exercise there option; instead they sit at home and enjoy the holiday. Government spends a huge amount of money in conducting the election process and low turnaround of people result in higher expenditure of acquiring each vote.
People on the other side have there own reasons for not casting a vote. They feel that nothing is going to change by there vote and they can’t bring a change in the system. But imagine if there is 100% turnaround of people then the real picture of election process will emerge and the winning candidate will have a clear mandate from the people, fake voting will be a passé, expenditure per vote made by government will come down and a clear mandate from the people will help in forming a stable government at each level.
image source: scientificamerican.com
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