Tuesday, December 02, 2008

The 49-O Rule

Ever walked into a polling booth and looked at the list of candidates and felt, "Oh crap. All these morons suck" ?

Ha, I did feel that way last time. I'm sure many of you do feel that way many a time. Did you know you can choose not to vote ?

There has always been an option for the voter to reject the candidates. If ever you feel none of the candidates in the election are worthy of your vote, you can choose to cast a Null Vote.

This is provided under the 49-O Rule of the Electoral Commission.
This makes sure that your vote is registered and also conveys to the Electoral Officials, that the guys are completely unworthy of the cause. This also prevents voter fraud and misuse.

The sad part is, this rule has always existed since 1960 but no one is ever educated about it. It was by pure co incidence that I came across it. Its time we make people aware of this.
Heres the wiki link 49-O Wiki

Imagine if we all exercise this option, next time.

I for sure am gonna exercise it, come next election time. What about you ?

4 comments:

hc said...

am not that sure if the button exists in the EVM..the election commission has conveniently kept that button away..during the last lok sabha elections people were campaigning for that button but sadly ti dint work out

Pranav Kumar V said...

Yeah yeah!! Heard of the rule too!! Some forward... The kind of confusion our political affairs are in right now, I guess I'll do the same too!! :)

See you when I see you... :)

hc said...

the election commission has confirmed back that such a rule exists but it wont affect in any way..even though if u say 70% press the none of these option and 30% vote for a candidate A .. A will be pronounced as the winner...

Anonymous said...

oh cool... i dint know tat... i ll try it out the very first time i go out to vote :)
merry christmas