Moily, Chavan moot making voting compulsory

Mumbai, Jan 16 (PTI) Stressing the need to reform theelectoral system, both Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily andMaharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan today said thatperhaps voting should be made compulsory.

The two leaders, speaking at a seminar on electoralreforms here, also agreed that the number of political partiesshould be "regulated".

"Elections should reflect the voice of the common man.

However, when less than 50 per cent of the population of over700 million exercise their right to vote, shouldn''t voting bemade compulsory?" Moily asked.

Taking the same line, Chief Minister Chavan said,"Whether voting should be made compulsory in our country needsto be seriously considered."

Moily said that though India has emerged as a victoriousdemocracy, there are deficiencies in the electoral system andthe time has come to think of "out of the box" solutions.

The Law Minister said his ministry would see to it thatcourts hear and decide all the criminal cases, especiallycorruption cases, within three years.

"Our judiciary takes a lot of time to punish the guilty.

This will be changed. All the requisite infrastructure andmanpower would be made available to the courts to see to itthat cases are decided within three years. Heinous crime caseswould be assigned to fast track courts so that they can bedecided within a year," Moily said. .