Im just another helpless first time voter

[karnivore]

I dont care..

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.


When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.


When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.


When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.


- Martin Niemoller

 

[mediator]

Today in TOI, I read an article that said "Delhities are taking a cold, hard look at the candidates and assessing their track record on development issues before deciding their choice". But here I see a completely different story. The choice is not the candidate, but the dilemma to vote or not!

 

[mayanks_098]

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.


When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.


When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.


When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.


- Martin Niemoller

Bravo.

To all those who say they dont care because nobody is worth it.Well,did you read what i posted in my last post? I suggest you read it.
Vote for "I vote nobody"

 

[afonofa]

Today in TOI, I read an article that said "Delhities are taking a cold, hard look at the candidates and assessing their track record on development issues before deciding their choice". But here I see a completely different story. The choice is not the candidate, but the dilemma to vote or not!

If there were right candidates then there is no reason for people to not vote. The dilemma to vote or not(atleast in India), is directly connected to the available choice of candidates. Whether one votes for 'my fav party' or 'your fav party', the end result is the same. People of this country end up with mud on their face, if not blood.

arre yar Congress ko 10 saal diye..5 BJP ko bhi deke dekho..we need CHANGE !!

[]
kaisa change? jaisa gujarat mein hua in 2002? ya fir waisa change jo orissa mein uss christian nun ke saath hua? desh ke every state mein itne change ka zaroorat nahi hai!! but your concern is appreciated.

(what change? the kind that came about in gujarat in 2002? or the kind that happened with the christian nun in orissa? we don't need that much change in every state of the country!!)
[/]

I think since we have tried the congress & co., the bjp & co. and they have succeeded superbly at failing us, so its time to try the communists & co. When you think about it, they also deserve an equal chance to fcuk up this country. Lets see if they can do any better or worse than the failures before them. They may be able to clean up this political mess we are in, without indulging in partiality, religious or any other kind. Unless there is a better choice or someone can come up with something convincing against the commies, I think this time we should vote the communists into power...but then I don't want to be in a chinese colony either.

 

[kalpik]

Im sorry, but i cannot spend 1-2 hours to vote for "noone". I honestly dont care about it. You can say whatever, i just dont care! Ill probably vote when i think any party is worth caring for.

 

[amitava82]

@afonofa: Wanna talk about West Bengal?

 

[R2K]

if there were no politicians in India.........it would have been more prosperous than USA..

i hate these politicians............

 

[karnivore]

Well i vote, and have done so since i have become eligible (Those were the days when ballots were used). But if someone chooses not to vote, i think i am ok with that too. NOT VOTING is also an opinion and that deserves respect as well.

But having said that, i would also add, that the decision to not vote, is something that should be taken only after a thorough consideration. Now, unless you are not in a position to vote, for whatever reason, or you are way too confused about who to vote, I don't think "waste of time" or "I don't care" are good enough reasons to stay away from voting.

I am pretty sure that one does not spend 24x7 being at his peak productive self. One does waste way more time than one would like to admit. The argument of waste of time is a pathetic excuse for being lazy.

'I don't care" is equally vacuous. We do care, again, more than we would like to admit. Everytime there is a slight inconvenience in our lifestyle, we make a pinata out of these politicians and their policies. But how fair is it for a person, who is indifferent about how we chose to run our society, to suddenly care when his own liberties are at stake. Do u have the RIGHT to be critical of the system, which u, to begin with, never took the RESPONSIBILITY to build ?

The problem of choice is common in all democracy. No single party is perfect and no single party can satisfy every single person. The decision, that is to be made, has to be between, what one thinks is, lesser evil than the rest. Saying that i will vote when that mythical political party-that-can-do-no-evil descends from the sky, is more juvenile than a kid waiting for the tooth-fairy.

Go out and vote. And if u don't, at least have a better excuse than "I don't have time" or "I don't care".

 

[mediator]

If there were right candidates then there is no reason for people to not vote. The dilemma to vote or not(atleast in India), is directly connected to the available choice of candidates. Whether one votes for 'my fav party' or 'your fav party', the end result is the same. People of this country end up with mud on their face, if not blood.

There were lot of theories against Modi, and forgetting all over about who actually started the Godhra. People of that state voted for him and its for the next 5 years to decide about his action and what he did. But what I see is that Gujarat is undergoing tremendous development. Th blame game happens all the time in politics. As a result, all kinds of people are carried in its wave. Then, the general people like you and me have a hard time understanding what actually is happening and we end up distancing ourselves from it. A few months back, we used to say police has gotten corrupt, ATS is corrupt and all the rhetorics. And now when a gallant officer like Mr. Karkare is martyred, we are singing praise for him and the ATS. Its like judging them all based on news, rumours, humours, misunderstandings etc ... all mixed!!

Also, if you talk of Nitish (Bihar), people from that state will tell you the tales about how many skools and colleges and development is actually being done now. Someone rightly said, that its a real tragedy that we see less voting from Upper and middle class who are much more aware and educated. Why its tragedy? You may ponder upon yourself!

And so how exactly do you define the "right candidate"?

Im sorry, but i cannot spend 1-2 hours to vote for "noone". I honestly dont care about it. You can say whatever, i just dont care! Ill probably vote when i think any party is worth caring for.

I know u reside (or used to) in East Delhi, with pincode-110092. I assume you never voted coz if you did, you wud have found that it actually takes less than 10 mintues! All of Delhi is like that => Game Over in 10 mints. If u can spend hours on the net, forums, replying in "chit-chat", then once in a while that too for just 10 mints is comparably negligible!

 

[anispace]

ah the political blame games begin...

the retards BJP are saying that people dont want the current Congress govt in power. You Fk jackasses what did u do to prevent terrorist strikes in Gujarat, Karnataka and Rajasthan. The Mumbai terrorists took a boat from Porbander in Gujarat. What did Modi do to stop them? And the 2001 parliament attacks who can forget that.
Instead of playing blame games they could atleast help the Congress government so that future attacks can be prevented.

And I thought this attack would some what change the attitude of the political parties. After 9/11 in US both the democrats and republicans got together. But such a thing is impossible in India.

 

[thewisecrab]

Well, Delhi is not being attacked; it's Mumbai. esumitkumar said he want change. Why do you want a change in Delhi when the problem is in Mumbai..? Just need a reason to blame congress lol

Never mind, I'm not into politics n I don't care..

Oh. I see.
So, whom did you'll vote for after all?

 

[kalpik]

Well i vote, and have done so since i have become eligible (Those were the days when ballots were used). But if someone chooses not to vote, i think i am ok with that too. NOT VOTING is also an opinion and that deserves respect as well.

But having said that, i would also add, that the decision to not vote, is something that should be taken only after a thorough consideration. Now, unless you are not in a position to vote, for whatever reason, or you are way too confused about who to vote, I don't think "waste of time" or "I don't care" are good enough reasons to stay away from voting.

I am pretty sure that one does not spend 24x7 being at his peak productive self. One does waste way more time than one would like to admit. The argument of waste of time is a pathetic excuse for being lazy.

'I don't care" is equally vacuous. We do care, again, more than we would like to admit. Everytime there is a slight inconvenience in our lifestyle, we make a pinata out of these politicians and their policies. But how fair is it for a person, who is indifferent about how we chose to run our society, to suddenly care when his own liberties are at stake. Do u have the RIGHT to be critical of the system, which u, to begin with, never took the RESPONSIBILITY to build ?

The problem of choice is common in all democracy. No single party is perfect and no single party can satisfy every single person. The decision, that is to be made, has to be between, what one thinks is, lesser evil than the rest. Saying that i will vote when that mythical political party-that-can-do-no-evil descends from the sky, is more juvenile than a kid waiting for the tooth-fairy.

Go out and vote. And if u don't, at least have a better excuse than "I don't have time" or "I don't care".

You are taking in the wrong sense.. I meant i dont care in the sense that no party has my confidence. So it doesnt really matter who wins (as far as im concerned at least). If in future some party somehow catches my attention, i would definitely go out and vote! Just going to the booth and playing inky pinky ponky with the voting machine is no use IMO.

 

[esumitkumar]

(what change? the kind that came about in gujarat in 2002? or the kind that happened with the christian nun in orissa? we don't need that much change in every state of the country!!)

hahaha..arre yar ..ye sab India main CHALTA hai..yehi attitude hai Indians ka ...jo jise pasand hai usey vote karo..nobody is forcing,,aur rahi GUJ ki baat..even muslims vote for Modi...

developement is all we want..meri pasand BJP hee hai ..atleast they are 25 % bettter than Cong..if not 100 %...

so jise chaho vote karo ..NJOY !!

 

[afonofa]

The problem of choice is common in all democracy. No single party is perfect and no single party can satisfy every single person. The decision, that is to be made, has to be between, what one thinks is, lesser evil than the rest.

With the current bunch of #%$! (out of civilized words to describe them so use whatever comes to your mind) that we have, no matter who we vote for, terrorists(outsiders) still attack. Atleast with the Congress in power we don't have to worry about our own people attacking each other. In that respect I think Congress would be the lesser evil.

 

[mediator]

But again, all those who are saying they don't/won't vote should still vote. If they are frustrated, then they can simply go to voting booth and opt "not to vote" as per article Article 49-O of Constitution.

DID YOU know that there is a provision in the Constitution of India, as per the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1969 Act, in Section 49-O that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked, and convey to the presiding election officer that he/she doesn’t want to vote for anyone! Yes, such a feature is available, but obviously these seemingly notorious leaders have never disclosed it. It is called "49-O".

49-O: The voter (or elector) deciding not to vote:

If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark.

If you think none of the candidates at the ward / constituency are able enough to lead the community, you can always opt not to vote, but if you will use this right of yours you may start a new things in our electoral process, which will further strengthen our democracy.


It is useful in the following way:

In a ward or constituency, if a candidate wins, say by ’x’ votes, and that particular ward has received "49-O" votes more than x, then that polling will be cancelled and will have to be re-polled.

Not only that, but the candidature of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people have already expressed their decision on them. This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This would change the way of our whole political system. It is seemingly surprising why the election commission has not revealed such a feature to the public.

Source


PS: Please spread this info!

 

[mrintech]

^^^^

Very Nice....

 

[kalpik]

Nice indeed. Ill definitely do that the next time Thanks for the info

Edit: Err.. From the link you gave:

this is not true, in any case the polling is not treated as null and void !The drawback of this rule is that the voter has to disclose his identity and the fact that he has not voted for any one does not remain a secret.Beyond the fact that such a vote can be cast under rule 49 O, there is no rule of repoll on the basis of number of votes polled under such rule. This is only a rumour going on for some time without anyone trying to get it confirmed with any authority. Theoretically, if all the votes but one, ispolled for 'none of the above' under the abovesaid rule and only 1 vote polled for a particular candidate, that candidate shall stand elected. 'None of the above' provision only helps in creating pressure on the political parties to field good candidates. There is of course a demand from various NGO's that the rule should be modified to incorporate the provision of repoll if such votes exceed a particular number. However, no decision has so far been taken by the GOI on that.As explained above the said rule 49-O relates to all Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.

Ok, checked wikipedia too: *en.wikipedia.org/wiki/49-O

Its just a stupid rule with no implications whatsoever. So now again, all this amounts to just wasting your time

 

[mediator]

Yep, thanx for checking out!
So I guess this is what it exactly says,

49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark

Here is what the Election Commission has to say on NEGATIVE / NEUTRAL VOTING:

The Commission has received proposals from a very large number of individuals and organizations that there should be a provision enabling a voter to reject all the candidates in the constituency if he does not find them suitable. In the voting using the conventional ballot paper and ballot boxes, an elector can drop the ballot paper without marking his vote against any of the candidates, if he chooses so. However, in the voting using the Electronic Voting Machines, such a facility is not available to the voter. Although, Rule 49 O of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 provides that an elector may refuse to vote after he has been identified and necessary entries made in the Register of Electors and the marked copy of the electoral roll, the secrecy of voting is not protected here inasmuch as the polling officials and the polling agents in the polling station get to know about the decision of such a voter.

The Commission recommends that the law should be amended to specifically provide for negative / neutral voting. For this purpose, Rules 22 and 49B of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 may be suitably amended adding a provision that in the ballot paper and the particulars on the ballot unit, in the column relating to names of candidates, after the entry relating to the last candidate, there shall be a column ìNone of the above, to enable a voter to reject all the candidates, if he chooses so. Such a proposal was earlier made by the Commission in 2001 (vide letter dated 10.12.2001).

(A petition by the People ís Union for Civil Liberties seeking such a provision filed at the time of the recent general elections is pending before the Honíble Supreme Court)

Lets hope this proposal gets cleared!