Cutting across party lines, members in Lok Sabha on Friday favoured making voting compulsory to strengthen democracy in the country. “Voting cannot be left to the will of the people.
Everyone must participate in the electoral process,” said Vinod Kumar Sonkar (BJP). He was speaking on a private member’s bill on Compulsory Voting moved by Janardan Singh ‘Sigriwal’ of BJP.
“A person can always press NOTA button if he does not like any of the candidates...but he must vote,” Mr. Sonkar said.
Expressing similar opinion, K Kavitha (TRS) said voters must be inspired to exercise his or her right to vote. At the same time, she added, political parties should also be held accountable for their failure to fulfil elecrtoral promises.
Dushyant Chautala (INLD), while favouring compulsory voting, made a case for introduction of bio-metric cards to check bogus voting. He said it should be accompanied by a ‘right to recall’ under which voters could have the option to recall elected representatives.
There should also be a provision for online and mobile voting to help the aged and those living at distant locations, he said.
