EC: Mandatory voting impossible to enforce
NEW DELHI, Jan. 25: The Narendra Modi-led Guajarat government may have decided to make voting compulsory in the local body polls. But both his party’s national president Nitin Gadkari and the Election Commission (EC) have reservations over his move.
While the EC says that compulsory voting is something that is impossible to enforce, the BJP president is of the view that any move in this direction should be made only after arriving at a consensus. Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Election Commission here on Monday, chief election commissioner Navin Chawla admitted that compulsory voting is something that would be impossible to enforce.
Mr Chawla further said that the state election commissioner was an independent constitutional authority and he must respect that position. Meanwhile, speaking to reporters here Mr Gadkari maintained that BJP "in principle"
supports compulsory voting but the issue should be discussed among political parties to arrive at a wider political consensus before implementing the idea.
"The government and the EC should initiate electoral reforms before the 2014 elections," he said and suggested periodic revision of electoral rolls to remove anomalies.
Mr Gadkari’s contention, however, does not have support of some of the NDA constituents like JD(U), which has argued that daily wage labourers may face problems in voting if it was made compulsory as they would lose a day’s earnings and those working in the interior regions may have to travel long distances to exercise their franchise.
Meanwhile, Mr Chawla has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking an amendment to the Constitution so that the removal procedure for both the CEC and the two election commissioners (ECs) is "equalised".
Mr Chawla had to face some embarrassment when he was the EC and his removal from the post was sought by the then CEC, N.Gopalaswami in January last year. Mr Gopalaswami had written to President Pratibha Patil seeking his sacking on the grounds of "partisanship".
"What is happening in precept and practice, I would like that to be equalised by a Constitutional amendment. And I have so written to the Prime Minister," said Mr Chawla on Monday while speaking on the sidelines of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Election Commission.
Age Correspondent
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