NOTA (‘None of the above’ option)

Question 1

How is a NOTA vote cast?

Answer 1

The EVMs have the NOTA option at the end of the candidates’ list. Earlier, in order to cast a negative ballot, a voter had to inform the presiding officer at the polling booth. A NOTA vote doesn’t require the involvement of the presiding officer.

Question 2

The use of NOTA in elections?

Answer 2

The option of NOTA for Lok Sabha and assembly elections was prescribed by the SC in 2013.

The option of NOTA in RS polls was introduced by the EC in 2014.

Thus, India became the 14th country to institute negative voting.

Question 3

What is Right to reject?

Answer 3

The ‘right to reject’ was first proposed by the Law Commission in 1999.

Similarly, the Election Commission endorsed ‘Right to Reject’, first in 2001, under James Lyngdoh [the then CEC], and then in 2004 under S. Krishnamurthy [the then CEC], in its Proposed Electoral Reforms.

Besides, the ‘Background Paper on Electoral Reforms’, prepared by the Ministry of Law in 2010, had proposed that if certain percentage of the vote was negative, then election result should be nullified and new election held.