RIGHT TO VOTE CONTAINS RIGHT NOT TO VOTE

Abstract

Universal adult suffrage is considered as a turning stone in modern democracy but in U.K the universal adult suffrage for parliamentary elections is less than a century old. The principle of one person one vote was even much younger as because the plural voting was only finally abolished in 1948. The people of representation Act 1948 was the one who explicitly states for the first time one person should have one vote in the parliamentary elections. “Democracy is all about choices and people will be empowered by the choice of negative voting.”Right to vote includes in it a right note to vote i.e. a right to reject. The right to reject was found its place in the fundamental freedom of speech and expression (which has been a long cherished and much debated upon fundamental freedom as envisaged in the constitution of India). Furthermore there is the difference between a voting right and a act of voting as mentioned in the supreme court judgment PUC Vs UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS 2013 right to vote is a statutory right under section 79(d) of people of representation Act while the act of voting is a derived right from article 19(a) as it is the form of expression of one individual.