49-O : None Of The Above.
These terror attacks have shown that if we are United, we are a Superpower. Divided we will become, after some more terror attacks, riots and civil wars, a Banana Republic.
We are told we only get the kind of Leaders we deserve, so please let's vote for the right guys. And if you feel they are all useless, then let's use Rule 49 O - and better still , we should all demand that in the next elections we have the right to choose "NONE OF THE ABOVE".
Of course the politicians will not like it, did not like it earlier too. But let's give them no choice.
'Proposals by the Election Commission of India
In a letter to the Prime Minister in 2004, the then Chief Election Commissioner of India, T S Krishnamurthy, suggested the following:7. NEGATIVE / NEUTRAL VOTING
The Commission has received proposals from a very large number of individuals and organizations that there should be a provision enabling a voter to reject all the candidates in the constituency if he does not find them suitable. In the voting using the conventional ballot paper and ballot boxes, an elector can drop the ballot paper without marking his vote against any of the candidates, if he chooses so. However, in the voting using the Electronic Voting Machines, such a facility is not available to the voter. Although, Rule 49 O of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 provides that an elector may refuse to vote after he has been identified and necessary entries made in the Register of Electors and the marked copy of the electoral roll, the secrecy of voting is not protected here inasmuch as the polling officials and the polling agents in the polling station get to know about the decision of such a voter.
The Commission recommends that the law should be amended to specifically provide for negative / neutral voting. For this purpose, Rules 22 and 49B of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 may be suitably amended adding a proviso that in the ballot paper and the particulars on the ballot unit, in the column relating to names of candidates, after the entry relating to the last candidate, there shall be a column '“None of the above'”, to enable a voter to reject all the candidates, if he chooses so. Such a proposal was earlier made by the Commission in 2001 (vide letter dated 10.12.2001).'
Is it possible to win this Right, the way we won our Right To Information? Will a PIL help?
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