What is the relevance of the National Voters’ Day for UPSC exam

Key Takeaways:

1. The time aims to promote people’s participation successful elections by encouraging and felicitating young voters and expanding elector enrolment. It is besides utilised to dispersed consciousness among voters and to beforehand informed information successful the electoral process. The time is celebrated astatine the national, state, district, constituency, and polling booth levels, which makes it 1 of the largest celebrations successful the country.

2. In democracies, voting is seen arsenic a basal workout that shows people’s religion successful the governmental process. Voting gives each idiosyncratic a accidental successful deciding who volition clasp positions of powerfulness successful their nine and is simply a important portion of exercising one’s citizenship.

3. In 2013, the Indian Supreme Court allowed for the enactment ‘None of the Above’ to beryllium introduced successful Lok Sabha and authorities Legislative Assembly elections to let specified views to beryllium expressed.

4. “Not allowing a idiosyncratic to formed a ballot negatively defeats the precise state of look and the close ensured successful Article 21, i.e. the close to liberty… a proviso of antagonistic voting would beryllium successful the involvement of promoting ideology arsenic it would nonstop wide signals to governmental parties and their candidates arsenic to what the electorate deliberation astir them. The mechanics of negative voting, thus, serves a precise cardinal and indispensable portion of a vibrant democracy,” the tribunal said astatine the time.

First-past-the-post and proportional practice systems

📍In India, the first-past-the-post voting method is utilized to elite members of the Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha. In this system, the candidates with the astir votes triumph the election. It is 1 of the astir basal methods of holding elections. 

📍 The predetermination of Rajya Sabha and President employs a azygous transferable ballot system, which is simply a benignant of proportional representation. This strategy helps guarantee that the creation of the Rajya Sabha much accurately reflects the proportionality of votes received by antithetic parties.

Postal Ballots

1. ‘Postal ballot’ allows voters who cannot beryllium physically contiguous successful polling stations to ballot remotely, arsenic specified successful Section 60 of the RPA. As per Rule 18 of The Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, the pursuing classes of persons are entitled to ballot by postal ballot:

• Special voters: Individuals holding declared bureau nether Section 20(4) of RPA, including the President, Vice President, Governors, Cabinet Ministers, different high-ranking dignitaries, etc. and their spouses.

• Service voters: Members of the Indian equipped forces, paramilitary forces, an equipped authorities constabulary subordinate serving extracurricular their state, oregon a authorities worker stationed overseas and their spouses residing with them.

• Voters connected predetermination duty: This includes each Commission’s observers, presiding officers, polling officers and agents, constabulary personnel, and nationalist servants assigned authoritative tasks connected polling day. Private individuals and non-government staff, specified arsenic videographers, power country staff, drivers, conductors, cleaners, helpline staff, etc., are besides covered.

• Electors subjected to preventive detention

• Absentee voters nether Section 60 (c) of RPA, 1951: In 2019, the Election Commission created the ‘Absentee Voters’ category. This includes elder citizens aged 85+, persons with disabilities having astatine slightest 40% disability, Covid-19 fishy oregon affected persons, and persons employed successful indispensable services.

Election Commission of India

BEYOND THE NUGGET: Election Commission of India

1. The Election Commission of India (ECI) is simply a permanent, independent, and law authorization liable for conducting escaped and just elections successful the Union and the States of India.

2. The Constitution has the pursuing articles (Articles 324–329) to empower the Election Commission and supply penetration into the imaginable roles and functions of the commission.

3. Article 324: The superintendence, absorption and power of the mentation of the electoral rolls for, and the behaviour of, each elections to Parliament and the Legislature of each authorities and of elections to the offices of President and Vice-President.

4. Article 325: No idiosyncratic to beryllium excluded from electoral rolls connected the ground of religion, race, caste, enactment oregon immoderate of them.

5. Article 326: Adult suffrage shall beryllium the ground for elections to the House of the People and to the Legislative Assemblies of States.

6. Article 327: Parliament may, according to the provisions of this Constitution, from clip to clip enact laws with respect to each matters relating to elections to Parliament and Legislative Assemblies of States.

7. Article 328: A state’s Legislature whitethorn from clip to clip by instrumentality marque proviso with respect to each matters relating to, oregon successful transportation with, the elections to the House oregon either House of the Legislature.

8. Article 329: The nonfiction prohibits the courts from becoming progressive successful electoral matters.

(Source: In a first, enactment process for adjacent Chief Election Commissioner casts wider net, ‘We bash not person authorities by the majority… but by the bulk who participate’, Election Commission of India, Expert Explains: Special categories of voters, their voting methods)

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