COIMBATORE: Unlike in some western countries, India’s electoral system does not give importance to negative voting. The ‘None Of The Above’ (NOTA) votes have only limited purpose, former Election Commissioner of Tamil Nadu Naresh Gupta said here on Tuesday.
He was speaking at the ‘100% Voting Awareness Campaign’ organised by SNMV College of Arts and Science jointly with the Puthiya Nambikkai Foundation (PNF) at the college.
“In western countries people have an option to cast negative votes, like NOTA in India, if they are not happy with any of the candidates. If the total number of negative is more than 50 percent, a re-election will be conducted,” he said.
“However, in India, even if NOTA exceeds 90 percent, the result will be announced on the basis of the remaining 10 percent vote,” said Naresh Gupta.
But, a re-election on the basis of negative votes is risky and expensive, he said, adding, “We cannot comment about it in one or two lines. Various aspects associated with it have to be addressed effectively before making NOTA a decisive factor”.
An audio-visual presentation of the history of election was also held at the college and students made aware of the significance of voting.
D Nandakumar, Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Coimbatore president, Ashok Bafna, president of SNMV College, A Ponnusamy, principal of the college, PNF Secretary P Ashok Kumar and joint secretary Bharath Kumar Jaghamani were also present at the event.