Voters may not notice NOTA symbol at the bottom: Activists

Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi had said nearly a month ago, “For the first time, a symbol for NOTA has been provided. Until now, the commission used write NOTA against a button in the electronic voting machines (EVM), but this time the commission in consultation with the National Institute of Design has prepared a symbol, which will be placed at the bottom of the list of candidates.” 

A cross on the list of candidates is supposed to depict the voter’s decision not to vote for any candidate. The cross is a universal sign to express disapproval and the commission thinks that this would make NOTA symbol easy to identify. The symbol will appear against NOTA option on all EVMs.

In 2013, the Supreme Court had directed the EC based on a PIL filed by an NGO to introduce a dedicated button for NOTA in EVMs and a symbol on ballot papers to allow voters to exercise their right to reject a candidate as unworthy or undeserving. An earlier move by the EC in 2009 did not find acceptance. 

The activists to whom DT Next talked to stressed that the symbol should be on every banner and flex board put up for the EC’s awareness campaign on 100 per cent voting so that voters who want to exercise NOTA option will be well-informed. 

Such an awareness will also send a strong message to tainted politicians to give way for those who wish to make ours a clean democracy. 

“Only when the number of NOTA votes goes up, the main political parties will wake up to the reality,” said U Niramala Rani, lawyer and social activist from Tiruchy. It would trigger a change of the entire political scenario in every election, she added. 

Professor C Lakshmanan of the Madras Institute of Development Studies (MIDS) told DT Next, “Though NOTA has not had much impact in the past elections, it is necessary for the authorities concerned to create an awareness about NOTA and its symbol.” He said the EC and the media should play a leading role in disseminating information and criminal records of the candidates should also be disclosed.

Some activists have suggested that the EC must consider keeping NOTA symbol at the top of the EVM and it should be called ‘NOTB’ (None Of The Below). “Any voter wanting to register his vote for NOTA will enter the polling booth and he won’t care about any party. So, it will be better if the EC fixes the button as the first one on the EVM,” says Ram Mohan, a city-based civic activist. 

But there is another school of thought that says that keeping the NOTA button at the top could be counter-productive as some voters might first press this button and realise their mistake, ask for another chance to vote.