COMMENTARY

The None of the Above Option

Manjari Katju

It is unlikely that providing

Indian voters with a no vote
option will either improve voter
participation or contribute to a
decriminalisation of politics.
Voter turnout is not an issue in
the country, since over the long
term it has been showing an
upward trend. Criminalisation is
the result of social and economic
factors, and the nomination of
candidates with a criminal
background may not change
merely by giving voters the option
of saying no. In countries with a
no vote option, such votes add up
to an insignificant number.

ampaigns to cleanse the political

system have gained considerable
ground in the last few years in
urban India. These have strengthened
with the nearing of assembly elections
in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh
and Chhattisgarh as also the general
elections scheduled for 2014. Coupled
with this are attempts, both institutional
and movement-driven, to make democracy in India more participatory.
It may be useful to start with a brief
look at the legal history of the various
moves towards this cleansing of the electoral system. In July this year the Supreme
Court ruled that parliamentarians and
state legislators who were convicted of
serious crimes, meaning carrying a jail
term of two years or more, would be
barred from contesting elections. The
Court struck down Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act which
allowed convicted members of Parliament
and Legislative Assemblies to continue
in office while their appeals journeyed
through courts often for indefinite periods.
The government, backed by support from
almost all political parties, had introduced a bill in Parliament to override
this Supreme Court judgment and then
passed the ill-fated ordinance which
now stands withdrawn.
Supreme Court Judgment

Manjari Katju (mkatju@gmail.com) teaches

political science at the University of Hyderabad.

10

In September, close on the heels of the

contentious ordinance, came another judgment from the Supreme Court. On a public
interest litigation (PIL) filed by Peoples
Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) a few years
back, it ruled that voters should have the
option to reject all the candidates who
were standing for election in their constituency. It directed the Election Commission (EC) of India to include the option
None of the Above (now popularly called
NOTA) in the electronic voting machines
(EVMs). The Supreme Court felt that this
would contribute to cleansing politics
october 19, 2013

that the political leadership would

formally know that there are people unhappy with the parties choice of candidates. The logic is that this would build
moral pressure on political parties and
possibly bring about a rethink on their
choice of candidates, making them hesitant to put up candidates with criminal
records. According to the Court, exercising the option of rejecting all candidates
would lead to a systemic change in the
whole electoral process.
The Supreme Court stated that besides
cleaning up politics, the option of negative vote would foster greater participation among voters as this would draw to
the polling booths those who otherwise
do not vote because they are not satisfied
with the candidates contesting elections.
The right to a negative vote would encourage them to visit the polling stations and
express their unhappiness by exercising
their choice of rejection. The Court felt
that this would also contribute to bringing down impersonation in voting.
The proposal for a negative vote had
come from, among others, the EC in 2001
when James Lyngdoh was the chief election commissioner (CEC).1 It was reiterated in 2004 by CEC T S Krishna Murthy
(see note 1). Though the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 provide that one can
refuse to vote after identifying oneself
and thereafter, appropriate entries would
be made by the polling officer in the
electoral register, etc, this procedure did
not protect the secrecy of the negative
ballot. As former CEC S Y Quraishi recently
pointed out in a newspaper article, the
EC has been asking for this option to ensure secrecy and bring down bogus voting and not for any other reason.2 The
PUCL petition on which the Supreme
Court based its ruling was on the same
issue maintaining the secrecy of the
voting decision. The Court went a little
further in its judgment and highlighted
the cleansing and participatory dimensions of the negative vote.
Causes and Effects
Published research on causes and effects
of negative voting brings out aspects of
it not easily discernible or immediately
vol xlviII no 42

EPW

Economic & Political Weekly

COMMENTARY

visible (see, for instance, Kernell 1977;

Fiorina and Shepsle 1989). However, this
published research is more about negative responses to governmental policies/
actions rather than such responses to
the choice of candidates. The scholars
looking at negative voting in the United
States some years ago pointed out that
such voting occurs when voters respond
more strongly to political decisions and
actions they are unhappy about than
those actions/outcomes they approve of
or are in favour in which case they
might not go to the polling booth at all
(Fiorina and Shepsle 1989). As is obvious, it is a vote expressing disapproval.
This disapproval can be both of policies
and leadership.
Voters satisfied with political actions
and leadership might or might not come
out to vote. With the option of a negative
vote, the same options are also available
to those who do not approve of the candidates or policies and are generally unhappy with the whole political situation
at a given time. They can choose to sit
back and not come to the polling booth
at all or come to the polling booth and
exercise their voting rights (in secrecy)
to express displeasure.
Negative voting, if it is against the
incumbents, highlights the issue of accountability of the political leadership
more sharply than what we can call
positive voting. Its objective is to drive
home, more forcefully, the point that the
leadership has to change itself and its
politics, and has to govern better. Political
parties may now have to be much more
unambiguously accountable for their
actions beginning from their choice of
candidates contesting elections to the
decisions they take in government. Earlier
research also points out that negative
voting unlike positive voting does not
require a highly politicised public or even
a highly informed one (Kernell 1977: 53).
In the case of India, the inclusion of
NOTA might not mean a significant rise
in turnout if the non-voting (but eligible)
section does not feel involved in politics
or is cynical about it as has been seen
in the case of a substantial section of
city dwellers. But this uncertainty should
not stop attempts to increase accountability and improve democratic norms.
Economic & Political Weekly

EPW

october 19, 2013

There is also the question of whether

electoral participation increases with
the option of negative vote on the ballot
paper or EVMs. Available academic literature hardly indicates anything on this,
perhaps because the question is not as
relevant and significant to electoral participation as, say, questions like education
or class identity. But one can look at
voter turnouts which indicate electoral
participation in some of the countries
where the Supreme Court pointed out
that this option exists.
Sweden gives its voters the option of a
negative vote by way of a blank ballot
the voters can choose a blank ballot paper
instead of one with party names and put
the same in the ballot box. In Sweden,
voter turnouts have been historically
very high averaging around 85%. A
quick glance shows that here the blank
votes stay around less than 1%. Greece
and Brazil, two countries mentioned by
the Supreme Court, as having provision
for casting blank votes do have high voter
turnouts, but like Sweden and Finland,
they both follow a system of compulsory
voting. Voter participation in Chile has
swung between highs and lows, and the
country follows compulsory voting too.
Political analysts have pointed out that
negative voting has more significance in
countries which follow compulsory voting.
Since here one does not have a choice
but to vote, one can give a no vote or
blank vote if one does not want to vote
for any candidate. In countries which
do not have compulsory voting, the
voters who disapprove of all the candidates on offer can sit back and need not
come out at all.
The state of Nevada in the US introduced this option in 1975. A year later,
this option outpolled the two contesting
candidates in the Republican primary
for the House of Representatives, but because of the non-binding nature of this
legislation, the first candidate won the
nomination.3 Interestingly, Nevada has
seen a steady decline in voter turnouts
since the introduction of the negative
ballot (see note 3). There have also been
voices asking for the none option to be
withdrawn as protest candidates gradually began to realise that it was draining support from them (see note 3).
vol xlviII no 42

Closer home in Bangladesh the no

vote option was introduced in 2008. In
fact, the draft law suggested that if in a
constituency the no vote figure touched
50% or more, the election in that particular constituency should be cancelled to
be held again later.4 There has been one
general election in Bangladesh, i e, in
2008, with that option. Voter turnout
saw a dramatic rise in these parliamentary elections reaching 78.93%. But the
no vote figure did not cross 1%.
Ukraine, another country mentioned
by the Supreme Court, does have higher
voter turnouts than India, but is seeing a
fall in recent years. The parliamentary
election participation has fallen from
75.8% in 1994 to 57.4% in 2012.
Getting separate data on negative/
protest/no votes/blank votes is not easy.
In some countries blank votes are counted
as invalid votes and not reported separately, but in some places they are counted
separately but treated as invalid or
protest votes.5 The main reason for this
is that in most countries where the negative/protest/blank/no vote option is
given, it does not have any legal power
of changing the electoral outcome and/or
it is usually an insignificant fraction of
the votes polled.
What would happen in India if the
number of NOTA votes exceed the
number of votes for the winning candidate? According to S Y Quraishi,
Even if there are 99 NOTA votes out of a total
of 100, and candidate X gets just one vote, X
is the winner, having obtained the only valid
vote. The rest will be treated as invalid or no
votes (see note 2).

Former CEC Navin Chawla reiterates this

legal position. According to him, under the
present law the option of repolling if
NOTA votes are more than those obtained by any candidate does not exist.6
Cleaner Politics?
Does a negative vote on candidates lead to
cleaner politics? Research on this question is also scarce. But a simple answer
to this question may be: not any cleaner
than happens when an incumbent government is rejected because of popular
dissatisfaction with its rule. Will the
negative vote lead to cleaner politics in
India? Will it bring to bear moral pressure
11

COMMENTARY

upon political parties? Opinion here

which has mainly come from jurists,
legal experts and election commissioners
is divided. Legal expert K K Venugopal
who has supported the need for a negative vote in India argues that it would
lead to a cleaner politics.7 In his opinion,
if the number of negative votes exceeds
the number of votes cast for the successful candidate, the election to the constituency should be nullified. This would,
according to him, have a salutary effect
on political parties who would then stop
relying on history sheeters, gangsters
and thugs and thus gradually the
system itself would be cleansed.
Views on Outcome
According to S Y Quraishi expecting this
from political parties is far too optimistic,
given their refusal to debar tainted candidates from contesting, despite a public
hue and cry for two decades (Quraishi,
op cit). Senior advocate and constitutional expert Rajeev Dhavan shares this
view. According to him, ...the chief
justices optimistic consequentialism is
far removed from reality. The shameless
do not get shamed.8 The view of constitutional analyst Subhash Kashyap is
similar. He feels that this is more of
a fashionable suggestion and would
not affect the selection of candidates by
political parties.9
Parties like the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
welcomed the judgment saying that this
would lead to electoral reforms.10 The
CPI(M) does not see any purpose in it.11
One will have to wait and watch how the
NOTA option works out in India, though
the experience from other countries does
not show a discernible impact on the
electoral system in the near or midterm.
Behind Criminalisation
While an institutional effort to enthuse
ethical norms in electoral politics needs
to be upheld, one has to keep in mind
that criminalisation of politics, as of
other institutions of state and society, is
to a large extent a function of massive
and continuing socio-economic inequalities and uneven power relations. Bridging these inequalities through political
and institutional efforts would play a
12

greater role in curbing criminalisation

and cleansing the political system.
As far as improving participation in
elections is concerned it is linked to a
whole lot of factors. Complicated registration processes, voter apathy, income
disparities, increasing spatial mobility,
loss of a days wages and social turmoil
are some of the factors that have come in
the way of bigger turnouts in various
democracies of the world. The availability
or otherwise of NOTA option is just
one of the factors that will influence
voter turnout. The western industrialised
democracies are grappling with the
problem of falling voter turnouts and
they have been debating the need for
compulsory voting. In India, on the other
hand, the situation is the reverse voter
participation is rising. One need not
worry, at least in the near future, about
the extent of participation in elections
here. But, if indeed, a decline in turnout
does take place, does compulsory voting
become a possible option? It is too premature to say anything on this now.
For the time being, however, one has
to wait and see whether NOTA would
lead to higher participation in elections
in India.

4 PTI, Bangladesh amends election law incorporating no vote option, The Times of India, 14
July 2008, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2008-07-14/rest-of-world/27918086_
1_general-elections-votes-amendment, accessed
on 4 October 2013.
5 ace: The Electoral Knowledge Network, http://
aceproject.org/electoral-advice/archive/questions/replies/705390375, accessed on 4 October 2013.
6 Navin Chawla, NOTA-ble Impact, The Asian
Age, 4 October 2013, http://www.asianage.
com/debate/nota-ble-impact-098, accessed on
5 October 2013.
7 K K Venugopal, Redemocratising the Electoral
System (Fourth Rajaji Memorial Lecture,
4 April 2009), The Hindu, http://www.hindu.
com/nic/elecsyst.htm, accessed on 4 October
2013.
8 Rajeev Dhavan, Fixing A Flawed Democracy:
Hello to NOTA, Bye to Convicted Lawmakers,
Court Offer Rescue Where Politicians Dont,
The Times of India (Hyderabad edition, p 12),
4 October 2013.
9 Subhash Kashyap (interview), NOTA Defeats
the Purpose of Holding Elections, Business
Standard, 5 October 2013, http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/nota-defeats-the-purpose-of-holding-elections-subhash-kashyap- 113092800791_1.html, accessed
on 5 October 2013.
10 PTI, BJP, AAP Welcome SC Decision in PollBound Delhi, Hindustan Times, 27 September
2013, http://www.hindustantimes.com/Indianews/NewDelhi/bjp-aap-welcome-sc-decision-in-poll-bound-delhi/Article1-1128032.
aspx, accessed on 5 October 2013.
11 Mahesh Vijapurkar, Why the Right to Reject
Will Be the Gamechanger in Indian Politics,
Firstpost. Politics, 28 September 2013, http://
www.firstpost.com/politics/why-the-right-toreject-will-be-the-gamechanger-in-indian-politics-1139273.html?utm_source=hp-footer, accessed on 5 October 2013.

REFERENCES
Notes
1 See Election Commission of India (2004) for a
reference to the 2001 communication, p 9, accessed on 3 October 2013.
2 S Y Quraishi, Pressure of a Button, The Indian
Express, 3 October 2013, http://www.indianexpress.com/news/pressure-of-a-button/1177434/1,
accessed on 3 October 2013.
3 See None of These Candidates, online Nevada
Encyclopaedia, http://www.onlinenevada.org/
articles/none-these-candidates, accessed on
4 October 2013.

Election Commission (2004): Proposed Electoral Reforms,

http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/PROPOSED_ELECTORAL_REFORMS.pdf, accessed on 3 October
2013.
Fiorina, Morris P and Kenneth A Shepsle (1989): Is
Negative Voting an Artifact?, American Journal
of Political Science, 33 (2): 423-39.
Kernell, Samuel (1977): Presidential Popularity
and Negative Voting: An Alternative Explanation of the Midterm Congressional Decline of
the Presidents Party, The American Political
Science Review, 71(1): 44-66.

EPW E-books
Select EPW books are now available as e-books in Kindle and iBook (Apple) formats.
The titles are
1. Village Society (ED. SURINDER JODHKA)
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CS62AAW ;
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/village-society/id640486715?mt=11)
2. Environment, Technology and Development (ED. ROHAN DSOUZA)
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CS624E4 ;
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/environment-technology-development/
id641419331?mt=11)
3. Windows of Opportunity: Memoirs of an Economic Adviser (BY K S KRISHNASWAMY)
(http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CS622GY ;
https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/windows-of-opportunity/id640490173?mt=11)
Please visit the respective sites for prices of the e-books. More titles will be added gradually.
october 19, 2013

vol xlviII no 42

EPW

Economic & Political Weekly