Write a 400 words essay on Advantages of NOTA
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Answer:
NOTA might seem like an old term to any but, it came into force in recent 2013. During elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, and Delhi, the assembly used this system.
In September of 2013, the government introduced NOTA through a Supreme Court directive mentioned in the Union of India versus People’s Union for Civil Liberties case to present the NOTA or ‘None of the above buttons in the election EVMs, whereby supporting a citizen’s right to vote for none of the parties along with the right to secrecy.
NOTA Advantages and Disadvantages:
Significant Features of NOTA
The NOTA option is very significant for citizens. The primary objective of the NOTA button is to help electors who do not wish to vote for any of the listed candidates in order to exercise their voting right to refuse the parties without breaching the privacy of their personal decision. The voter must be qualified to record a rejection vote if they feel it necessary that the contesting competitors are undeserving of their vote. The freedom to vote awarded to all citizens is a compulsory obligation that must allow the vote of rejection whenever the citizen chooses to exercise it.
Advantages of NOTA
Maintenance of equality and prevents false voting: NOTA helps maintain the freedom to equality of citizens by omitting the discrimination based on caste, creed, gender, and religion and provides fair opportunities to every vote caster not to vote and exercise the option of NOTA when felt necessary.
Explanation:
Disadvantages of NOTA
Verified answer
Answer: As mentioned by Gareth Adamson, NOTA is not a voting system, but one more option that can be chosen, along with the rest of the candidate options.
It’s like voting for any other candidate, except if NOTA wins majority of votes, it cannot be elected - the second highest vote winner will be elected.
But NOTA is a really useful tool to gauge the level of dissatisfaction amongst the voters - it tells us the number of voters for whom none of the candidates is good enough to govern them.
Advantages of NOTA:
Preserves Freedom of Expression by allowing voters to express dissent against undesirable candidates (‘not choosing anyone’ is also a fair choice that people must be allowed to have)
Preserves the Secrecy of the Voter: before NOTA, to cast a blank vote, one needed to sign a form with their name on it - blank voters could, in theory, be traced and punished for their choice
Potentially can improve voter turnout by providing an option for voters who disapprove of ALL the nominated candidates; by this it can encourage greater participation in the democratic process
Can prevent bogus voting as a result of higher turn-out
Over time, is expected to bring about gradual and systemic change in the quality and integrity of candidates that are fielded by political parties
Is a good indicator of dissatisfaction amongst the voters about the candidates
Disadvantages of NOTA:
Can be misused by voters who are easily swayed by cynicism and don’t carefully look at the options available to them - lesser known but worthy candidates could be overlooked, and undesirable candidates could come into power because NOTA has no electoral value.
The process towards cleaner politics and integral candidates is a slow one in the absence of electoral value of NOTA.
If given the power to hold re-elections and reject the candidates who obtained lower votes than NOTA, this process would be much faster, and this would be more appealing to people who prefer instant, or at least quick, results.
Could be misused by political parties, especially against incumbent political parties - the opposition can create a lot of negative opinion about the incumbent party to make voters press NOTA, especially if the opposition parties lack sufficient credibility themselves.
To avoid this kind of misuse of NOTA what we can do is: avoid getting carried away by media and conversations around us, and check the background, history, and agenda of the candidates ourselves before deciding who to vote for.