When Prashant Kurup from Attingal constituency walked in to cast his vote in the last two polls, curious eyes followed him into the election booth. The reason being that he used to ‘silence’ the Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) by not pressing any button.
This act of silent protest was his way to express his discontent towards all the candidates. But this time, when he exercises his franchise, the same EVM will make a loud beep, audible to the entire polling booth - thanks to the faceless candidate - NOTA or the None of the Above Option, that has been introduced in EVMs for the first time in this Lok Sabha polls.
There are many who disagree with parties, on the merit of the candidates they field, and abstain from voting. Though rare, there are some like Prasanth, who air their ire by not casting a vote and registering it in the polling booth. But in a politically sensitive state like Kerala, it has to be seen how many electorates will opt to stand in serpentine queues and use NOTA.
“I think in Kerala, it will only have a marginal influence on voters. Like in many other states, people here are losing faith in political parties. In a democracy, NOTA should be seen as a positive reform that the Election Commission has brought in to provide an additional right to the people,” said Shaji Varkey, Department of Political Science, Kerala University.
According to him, if NOTA votes are more in any particular constituency, it would spur the political parties to nominate only good candidates next time.
He said the new provision does not mean that all candidates in a constituency stand rejected or defeated even if the number of NOTA votes, though chances are remote, exceeds the total votes secured by the highest vote-getter.
The Election Commission directive clearly states that “NOTA has the same effect as not voting for any candidate. Therefore, even if, in any extreme case, the number of votes against NOTA is more than the number of votes secured by the candidates, the candidate who secures the largest number of votes among the contesting candidates shall be declared elected”.
Also, another advantage of NOTA is that it would decrease the number of bogus votes as those who usually abstain from voting may turn up to cast their vote in favour of NOTA.
In the recently held assembly elections, NOTA was introduced in five states, and in Madhya Pradesh alone over six lakh voters, accounting for 1.9 per cent of the total votes polled, used NOTA. In Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh many used NOTA, but in Delhi NOTA fared poorly