MADURAI: Article 49-O of the Conduct of Election Rules grants a voter the right to refuse to cast his vote in any election and the presiding officer shall record it in the appropriate form, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Tamil Nadu Naresh Gupta, said here on Wednesday.
Delivering the keynote address at the seminar on Electoral reforms organised by the Department of Public Administration and Political Science of Madurai Kamaraj University, the CEO said such a voter could go to the polling booth, identify himself to the presiding officer, and give him a written statement explaining his unwillingness to vote for any of the candidates.
As it may mar the concept of secret voting, some NGOs had approached the Supreme Court asking that the facility be included in the electronic voting machine and the case was pending. That such a rule existed was unknown even among the polling officers in the previous elections. Therefore this time the Election Commission (EC) has decided to brief the polling officers on this provision, the Chief Electoral Officer said.