India Electoral Reforms - Right to Recall/Reject

[prahaar]

It would make ample sense if people are allowed to vote for multiple days, so that many more people are able to vote according to their convenience. Voting is THE ONLY action that people can do, rest all is out of their direct control. I understand logistics issues and also security issues are quite huge for such a step, but it could be a stepping stone towards the run-off system that IMHO is the most unifying mode of election.

[chaanakya]

Run off is next logical step after NOTA is introduced. This option is worth discussing.
What needs to be amended is Article 81 of the constitution

81.(1)[Subject to the provisions of article 331
,the House of the People shall consist of—
(a) not more than [five hundred and thirty members] chosen by direct election from territorial constituencies in the States, and

Otherwise NOTA will lead illogical election if Majority of voters select NOTA whereas leading contenders get less than 50% of total votes polled yet one of them highest among candidates.

RMji have you devised any amendments to relevant Articles of COI. What is the proposal?

(No ji pls, just RCM would suffice

NoTA is waste-o-time. Once a voter is in booth, if voter hates congress more than BJP , he will vote for BJP and if he hates BJP more than Congress, then he will vote for Congress. Not even 1% will select Right to Reject. [v]voters are all going to reject right to reject[/b]: And a scary scenario is that Right to Reject will appeal mainly to educated voters who would have otherwise voted for NaMo, which will only help Congress !! Basically, Anna and AK both took Right to Reject in 3rd gear only because too many of their own activists had started liking my Right to Recall proposals. And so a diversion was needed. Right to Reject was a good diversion.

Anyway, no constitutional amendments are needed for NoTA or Two Round Voting System or Preferential Voting System. Simple changes in People's Rep Act would suffice.
.

Ok RCM

on second thought I would agree with you that only amendment to People's Representation Act would be required to implement Run off since this would still be direct election as in the Constitution.

SCj could interpret constitution but if people doubt their bonafide then that would come cropper. Further as you rightly pointed out and as also some Lordhships have pointed out recently judgements could be overturned by amendment though that is little difficult route without political consensus. But SCj need to redefine Basic Structure of the constitution which is treated as unalterable even by an amendment. Kesavanand Bharati case, Minerva Mill case will stand testimony to your views.

Right to Reject comes from Rule 49-O of Conduct of Elections Rules

Code: Select all

49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.—If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form 17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.[1]

Better alternative for electoral reform should be Run-off and Right to Recall. AAP would have tried this Right to Reject as a Ghost candidate against leading contender without actually spending money to arrange for , what is known in popular parlance as Vote Splitter or Katua.

[Vriksh]

Problem with democracy in India is that there are as follows
1) Less than 30% of population are enrolled in electoral rolls (data needed to back this up, so request members to collect data)
2) Most people are registered in their native domiciles and cannot vote where they currently reside (this is specially true of urban populations). Eg a person with voter id card of Tirupati may be residing in Mumbai due to economic reasons. That is why there is only 50% turnout from my understanding nearly all who have voting right and live in a locality actually do go out to vote and that turnout is > 90%.
3) Most Politicians have cultivated a niche votebank which is economically, religiously and socially enslaved by fear monger politics which may be ~6-7% of the population

Now given that typically the winner carries the election by 30% of turnout. You can see that the so called elected representatives only represent approximately 9% of the population (out of which 6-7% is given by the niche votebank mentioned above). These politicians have therefore every right to work in detriment of 90% of the population in order to keep their niche votebanks happy. This is not sustainable

Solution: 1) allow all candidates upto 90% of votes cast be representatives in Assemblies. Suitable cutoff to be decided by a say no of votes ~ 50000

[Rahul Mehta]

johneeG: But on the recalling idea. I haven't gone through all the details of your idea. But, it seems to me that instituting some kind of recall is the only way to improve the Indian democracy. Otherwise, the elected politicians are only loyal to themselves, their families, their castes and their parties. The people's problems don't have any consideration. And people have no way of showing that they are unhappy with their elected representatives.

Exactly. AWMTA Thats what Ahimdamurti Mahtma Chandrashekhar Azad in 1925 !! That without RTR, elections will become a joke !! The question is -- what recall procedure is cheap and efficient? The answer is section-6.6 pog http://rahulmehta.com/301.htm . And that we should have RTR not just over MLA, MP but from ALL officials from SCCj to Sarpanch. Now how can we activists force PM to print these RTR-drafts in Gazette? Well, for that , pls see my the thread on http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 6#p1544556

[Rahul Mehta]

paid-economics-times prints an article in favor of Right to Recall. The article is written by well know theatre artist Alyque Padamse. Alyque Padamse had played role of Jinha in the movie Gandhi.

Now why is ToI print an article in favor of RTR? It looks like ToI is preparing to create a mass-movement on RTR by staging AK as its leader to ensure that a useless RTR-law-draft gets printed.

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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opi ... ttarget=no

Maharashtra polls: Right to recall will make them accountable

By Alyque Padamse

What the assembly polls means to most Bombaywallahs? Basically, I must say that my interest in the assembly elections is low. I've realised that these people are going to form the new government.

I will, of course, vote as I have done in every election since I was 18 years old. I am very interested in Independents. Because I've realised party lines don't give you any elbow room. Independents, at least, have their own point of view.

However, once the person is a member of the Congress, BJP or Shiv Sena, we know what they are going to do. I don't like or subscribe to any of the party programmes. I find that they are all self-serving and they make big promises but fall very short on delivery. It's a kind of hoodwinking the public. Politicians in India have no shame.

Politicians elsewhere do - in the US, for instance - though it's due to the public. We, on the other hand, have no civic sense. As long as our own lives are not interfered with, we continue to say "oh well, too bad, they are horrible people" and we complain to our friends. We never complain to the actual people who are destroying the very fabric of our lives. For instance, the BMC which has been run, as far as I know, by the Sena for years and years, I have always said we should privatise as many things we can; privatise the BMC.

In many American cities, the services are privatised and if they don't give you good service you can go to court and have them put in place. The other thing I find missing here is that there's no sense of political recall. I think that is something that makes people feel that voting is a waste of time and that anyone or any party you vote for is going to be the same old thing and they are only interested in grabbing land. I think that is something that makes people feel that voting is a waste of time and that anyone or any party you vote for is going to be the same old thing and they are only interested in grabbing land.

They just want five years. I believe that anyone running for elections, assembly or national, should be forced to put down their promises to the public before a judge and after one year there should be stock-taking. Politicians feel accountability is promises.

That's what's wrong with our democracy. Accountability is, in fact, action. In most well run countries people in public offices are forced to deliver and if they fail to deliver on their promises they are thrown out of office. The Right to Recall is a simple mechanism to keep politicians on their toes. It's time we had a better system for accountability.

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