Advani pitches for NOTA, compulsory voting

Welcoming the recent Supreme Court verdict on giving the voters the option of registering negative voting, senior BJP leader L.K. Writing on his blog, Mr. Advani said the Election Commission could convene a meeting of all political parties, after providing them, on the one hand, the text of the Supreme Court judgment, and on the other, a comprehensive report on the laws and rules in 31 countries where such a provision existed in one form or another, to initiate a purposeful debate on the issue. Mr. Advani said there were as many as 31 countries whose laws provided for some kind of compulsory voting system, though details of these laws were such that observers felt that it was only one dozen of these that actually enforced compulsory voting by having deterrent provisions for citizens who failed to vote without any justified reason. “What I regard as significant is the fact that out of the seven countries that have given the electors the NOTA option, the first five listed by me, namely, France, Belgium, Brazil, Greece and Chile, have compulsory voting also,” he said. The BJP veteran noted that the remaining countries having some sort of compulsory voting arrangement were Austria, Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Fiji, Gabon, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, Nauru, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey and Uruguay.