WHY COMPULSORY VOTING IN INDIA IS A BAD IDEA

Making voting compulsory also kills the option of not voting as a protest.

Rather than living under fear of discipline, disadvantaged groups will find it easier to de-register as voters. No one question the advantages of higher and educated voter turn-out for democracy, but instead of taking the compulsory route for wider participation of people in the election process – innovation can be tackled to accomplish this end.

Democratic elections are about ascertaining people’s choice of leaders. They are not tied in with convincing participation at the voting stall. A elector should be as allowed to refrain from voting as she is to vote. Abstention is a discretionary decision like whatever other.

In a reaction to a 2015 petition filed by one Satyaprakash, who needed compulsory voting to be authorized in India, the NDA government told the Supreme Court a week ago that practicing one’s establishment is the essential right of each resident however not an obligation. The legislature depended on the 255th Law Commission Report, which says “electoral right” of the voter incorporates the privilege to “vote or refrain from voting at an election.” The Representation of People Act, 1951 – the law that governs elections – too talks of “right to vote rather than a duty to vote”.

Some objections

One: it is not practical.

Two: that it is anti-democratic to force people to vote.

Three: It has a punitive element in it so it is bad.

Four: it amounts to authoritarian move and makes elections something akin to what happens in the people’s democracies of Communist regimes, not a liberal regime.

A comprehensive Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance Study uncovers that the distinction in voter turnouts between the 28 nations with necessary voting arrangements in their statute books and the 171 nations without such arrangements is 7.37%. Thus, expanded interest does not ensure quality investment or does not make a majority rule government with mandatory voting more energetic.

There is likewise a genuine dread that mandatory voting may prompt more vote purchasing by hopefuls particularly in a nation like India, where we have seen instances of – cash-for-vote scams – where officials were purchased over by cash influence.

The idea of implementation of this system is a danger to the democratic structure of our country and the last thing that Indian democracy need right now.