Provision for ‘No vote’

Staff Correspondent:

The Election Commission (EC) yesterday disclosed a significant proposal for introducing a system for casting ‘no vote’ in parliamentary elections to express voter’s lack of confidence in the contrasting candidates in a constituency.

The number of the “no votes” cast will not, however, affect the election results, the draft said, adding that this statistics might rather be used only for academic purpose. The EC disclosed the proposals on electoral reforms at a meeting with the editors of different national dailies and senior journalists at the National Economic Council conference room.

The draft presented yesterday has a few new proposals included in the original draft of the EC upon the caretaker government’s advice. The original draft was disclosed on April 5. In a bid to empower women politically, the EC also proposed that every registered political party must have specific provision in its constitution for including at least 33 percent women as office bearers of its central committee and other committees at different levels.

Source at the EC Secretariat said this proposal was drafted after the EC’s April 26 meeting with civil society personalities.