Why the Election Commission’s Strategy to Name and Shame Voters Won’t Help

26-08-2023

11:40 AM

1 min read

Election Commission has recently signed MoUs with over 1,000 corporate houses undertaking to monitor “electoral participation of their workforce” and publish on their websites and notice boards those who do not vote.
As per ECI, the MoUs are only for voter education and facilitation and not for compelling them to vote, not to speak of “naming and shaming”.

More recent developments

The Chief Electoral Officer of Gujarat recently announced that the employees of state public sector units and government departments who don’t vote will also be tracked.
Though the commission cannot enforce compulsory voting, it “wanted to identify workers in big industries who don’t vote despite availing the holiday”.

Compulsory voting is a system in which citizens are required by law to vote in elections or at least attend a polling place on voting day.
If an eligible voter does not attend a polling place, he or she may be punished with fines or community service.

The Compulsory Voting Bill, 2019, was introduced as a private members bill in Lok Sabha.
Similar private member’s bill on Compulsory Voting has been earlier moved in 2015 and 2009.
Karnataka Panchayat Raj Amendment Act, 201 has made voting compulsory in gram panchayat elections.
Gujarat Local Authorities Laws (Amendment) Act, 2009 also introduces an ‘obligation to vote’ at the municipal corporation, municipality and Panchayat levels in the state of Gujarat.

NOTA judgment: The Supreme Court, in PUCL vs Union of India, 2013 has held that abstention from voting and negative voting are protected as freedom of expression under fundamental right (Article 19).
- Also the judgment noted free and fair election as a basic structure of the Constitution and necessarily includes within its ambit the right of an elector to cast his vote without fear of reprisal, duress or coercion.
Dismissed compulsory voting plea: Earlier also in 2009, the Court had taken the same view while dismissing a plea that sought to make voting mandatory on grounds of governments not representing the majority because of low turnouts.
Justification: Apex court had noted that non-voting in an election might be due to conviction or for ideological reasons.
- More importantly, many cannot vote owing to circumstances they are confronted with, e.g. daily wage workers, homeless and ill.

Constitutional guarantee: India has a non-discriminatory, voluntary system of voting. Article 326 of the Constitution guarantees the right to vote to every citizen above the age of 18.
Representation of People’s Act, 1951: Section 62 of the Representation of Peoples Act (RPA), 1951 states that every person who is in the electoral roll of that constituency will be entitled to vote.

Undemocratic: The coercion as depicted by ECI proposal indicates an authoritarian approach that is antithetical to democracy.
Against privacy: Protection of elector’s identity and affording secrecy is integral to free and fair elections and the ECI directives violates the same.
Contempt of court : An arbitrary distinction between a voter who casts and a voter who does not cast his vote is violative of Article 14 (Equality before the law).
- Hence listing of non-voters up on a company’s notice board or website is a contempt of court.
Violates constitutions provisions: Section 79 D of the Representation of People Act, 1951 defines “electoral right” to mean the right of a person to vote or refrain from vote at an election.
Violates legal provision: The Section 171A (b) of Indian Penal Code also defines “electoral right” as the right of a person to stand, or not to stand as, or to withdraw from being, a candidate or to vote or refrain from voting at an election.
- Thus, the law completely enables, but does not force, citizens to vote.

Authoritarian: Compulsion is part of a slippery slope to totalitarianism.
Limited choice: Compulsory voting forces people to vote for someone even if they do not like any of the candidates on offer.
Unresponsive political system: Voluntary voting makes parties and candidates do more work to convince people of the merits of their policies in order to get voters to the polls.
Ambedkar’s views: The idea of making voting compulsory was rejected by Dr. B R Ambedkar on account of practical difficulties during the discussion on the People’s Representation Bill in Parliament in the year 1951.
Dinesh Goswami Committee (1990) and Law Commission, in its 255^th report on Electoral Reforms has also rejected compulsory voting on the grounds of practical difficulties in implementing.

Enriches democracy: Compulsory voting improves voter turnout and ensures that the democratic process is truly working.
Fair elections: It prevents disenfranchisement of the socially disadvantaged, through bribes or covert threats.
Enhanced gains: Studies also shown a positive correlation between compulsory voting and improved income distribution.
Civil duty: Voting is a civic duty comparable to duties such as taxation and therefore it makes sense to make voting mandatory. It is also a necessary part of the duties of citizenship.
Voter awareness: People in voting age group will take politics more seriously and start to take a more active role.
Legible government: Compulsory voting increase the legitimacy of elected representatives coz if turnout is low, candidates can win with much less than a majority of the eligible vote.
Encourages innocent candidates: New parties and candidates who lack wealthy backing can contest elections without spending large sums of money just to get the voters to polling booths.

ECI has demonstrated enhanced voter participation since 2010 when a voter education division was set up.
The ECI’s voter education programme has sought to motivate the youth to participate in democracy by registering as voters, voting in every election and voting ethically, i.e. without inducement.
ECI’s Systematic Voters Education for Electoral Participation, (SVEEP) programme in 2010 aims to educate voters and to ensure their effective participation in elections.

The noble objective of enhanced voter participation can be best achieved only through systematic voter education, amply demonstrated by the ECI in previous initiatives.
Persuasion, motivation and facilitation by education rather than compulsion hence are the answer.

Source: Why the Election Commission’s Strategy to Name and Shame Voters Won’t Help