Shameran Abed

So, it turns out that we have a ‘no’ vote option in these elections. Don’t like a candidate, you can go into the polling booth and vote for none of the above. How is that different from simply not turning up to vote at all you ask? It is different because it shows that you actually took the trouble to participate in the electoral process, and sets you apart from those who didn’t vote just because they were lazy or could not be bothered. Also, if more than 50 per cent of the votes cast in a constituency are ‘no’ votes, i.e. if the majority of voters reject all the candidates contesting for that seat, the Election Commission will apparently conduct a re-election in that constituency. That outcome, however, is highly unlikely. It is difficult to imagine a situation where the number of ‘no’ votes cast in a constituency will outnumber all the votes cast for all the different candidates put together. In any case, there is great novelty value to the whole ‘no’ vote thing.
But novelties aside, the ‘no’ vote option does have several practical implications. Some argue that to vote ‘no’ is to waste your vote because your vote can make a real difference to how the country is governed and to refuse to choose between the candidates on offer is a cop-out. Others feel that the ‘no’ option gives them, for the first time, an opportunity to officially register their protest against the nature of politics in our country. The one potential downside of the ‘no’ option, as far as I am concerned, is that it discourages voters who are not happy with the major party candidates to search out and learn about the other candidates – nominated by fringe parties or independent. There may be a tendency this time to just vote ‘no’ just because the candidates nominated by the major parties are unpalatable. That would be unfortunate, because unless we start electing better representatives to parliament, neither politics nor governance will see any qualitative change. Anyway, the option now exists. It’s up to voters to decide what they want to do with it!