Vote, Amdavad, vote. You really have no choice

DILIP PATEL
Beginning October 2010, 35 lakh voters in 56 wards of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation will have to vote. Compulsorily. In a first-of-its-kind decision in the country, the state government has set the ball rolling to make it mandatory for all voters to cast their vote in local self bodies elections. he state government has already legalised the framework for the same and will present it during the two-day Vidhan Sabha session to start on Thursday. The law will also have a no-vote provision for voters who do not find a candidate worthy of their vote. The state government has proposed a law granting 50 per cent reservation for women in local self-government bodies’ elections, Urban Development Minister Nitin Patel told Mirror. “The decision to make voting mandatory will be the first of its kind in the country. We are also taking a lead in 50 per cent reservations for women in local self government body elections,” Patel said. He said that voters who do not exercise their franchise will be served a show cause notice by the state election commission and asked to give a clarificaition in 30 days. If the voter fails to safisfy the state election commission than he will be declared a defaulter. The state government is in the process of framing the rules for penalty or punishment for defaulter voters. The state government will amend three laws under the Gujarat Local Authorities Law Amendment including the BPMC ACT, the municipalities act and the panchayat act to accommodate the new law. The Gujarat local self government bodies have 3.5 crore voters. There are 13,000 gram panchayats, 225 taluka panchayats,167 municipalities and 27 district panchayats besides seven municipal corporations. All of these will go for an election between September and December 2010. The state government is also in the process of forming a Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation following the high court order.