The Gujarat Government issued a notification in order to make voting compulsory in local bodies’ elections.
With the compulsory voting coming into effect, upcoming local body polls slated in October this year, there would be very high percentage of voting. The State on an average records not more than 45 per cent voting during the local body polls.
The forthcoming local body polls include six municipal corporations, over 250 municipalities, 33 district panchayats and around 200 tehsil panchayats. Following this notification, any citizen abstaining from voting in civic elections will be penalised — either by way of monetary fine or non-eligibility for certain civic incentives — which will be specified once the rules are framed in near future. The notification is however quiet on specific punishment that would be meted out to those who fail to exercise their voting duties.
“The Governor has cleared the ordinance. So, whether a common man or an elected councilor, everyone will now have to vote compulsorily,” Government spokesperson and Health Minister Nitin Patel said. On July 22, 2015, the State had announced that as per the notification, an elected member or an office bearer of any local body would stand disqualified in an event he or she does not vote.
Other than making voting compulsory, the backdated notification of July 17, 2015, also reserves 50 per cent seats in the municipal corporations, municipalities, and village panchayats for women.
The Ordinance is likely to be made part of the Act through another amendment during the upcoming Monsoon session, slated for the next month.
Introduced first in 2009, the bill received Governor’s nod after a gap of five years, in November 2014 by present Governor OP Kohli.
The bill that was earlier passed twice with a majority vote by the Gujarat Government led by Narendra Modi, had faced stiff resistance from former Governor Kamla Beniwal in 2010 and 2011 on the grounds that forcing people to vote violated Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
