Party that urges people not to vote

Chandigarh, Feb 9:At a time when all political parties in Punjab are sweating it out to woo voters, a party is going to the people with a rather unusual appeal--'Go to polling booth but don't vote.' The International Democratic Party (IDP) has launched a campaign in the state, ahead of the February 13 assembly elections, to convince them not to vote if they do not like any of the candidates in the fray.

Talking to UNI, IDP state president Karnail Singh Jakhepal said under Section 49(O) of the Election Rule-1961, a voter may refuse to vote after making an entry in the polling booth. He only has to sign a register kept with the presiding officer or put his thumb impression, he added.

He said the Section 49 (O) was basically aimed at preventing bogus voting in the elections but the IDP believed that the people could use it for ''rejecting'' the candidates till the voter formally gets a 'right to reject' column on ballot paper or electronic in future.

When the IDP president's attention was drawn to the Supreme Court's recent dismissal of a PIL seeking 'right to reject' for voters, he said the Supreme Court had ruled that the government was entitled to take a decision in this regard. Meanwhile, the IDP had decided to cover over 100 of the 117 constituencies in the state to spread their unique message. ''We will distribute 75,000 posters and 10,000 pamphlets in this regard.'' Asked for the rationale behind such a campaign, Mr Jakhepal said the elections in India had become a game of money and muscle power and the kind of candidates the political parties were fielding these days were not suitable to be voted.

He said when the 'refusal to vote' campaign would gain acceptance at a bigger level, it would make the right kind of pressure on the government to grant the voter the formal right to reject. ''And the formal right to reject will finally put a pressure on various parties to choose the right kind of candidates,'' he added.

Mr Jakhepal said though the IDP was a political party, founded in 1986, it did not field its own candidates in the elections.

''Our main purpose is to create soico-political awareness among the people and that can be better done without contesting elections,''he said.

UNI