If NOTA gets the most votes in the elections, who will be the winner?
Voting will take place on 102 seats in the first phase of Lok Sabha elections 2024. Political parties have fielded their candidates in the election field. Now their fate will be decided in voting on 19th April. But if a voter does not like any of the candidates standing in his constituency? For such voters, the Election Commission had come up with the option of NOTA. Let us understand what is the role of NOTA in elections and what happens if NOTA gets the maximum votes.
What is the meaning of NOTA?
Let us tell you that NOTA means NONE OF THE ABOVE i.e. none of the above. EVM machine has been in use for a long time, but NOTA button has been included in it only in the last decade. NOTA was first introduced in the assembly elections of 5 states in 2013. After the decision of the Supreme Court, voters started being given the option of NOTA in all elections from 2013. This button is located at the end of the EVM.
In a democracy, it is necessary for citizens to participate in the electoral process in large numbers. It is a symbol of a living democracy. But what if voters do not find any candidate worthy? Keeping this in mind, the Election Commission developed a democracy by which it could be recorded what percentage of people did not consider it appropriate to vote for anyone. The Commission named it NOTA.
Meaning of voting for NOTA
Voters can express their dislike through NOTA option. This also sends a message to the parties that the candidates fielded by them are not accepted by the people and they need to field candidates. Before NOTA, if a voter did not find any candidate worthy, he did not vote. Due to this his vote was wasted.
Many changes in NOTA rules from time to time
There have been many changes in the rules of NOTA from time to time. Initially NOTA was considered illegal. That is, if NOTA got more votes than all the other candidates, then the candidate with the second highest number of votes was declared the winner. Finally, in 2018, for the first time in the country, NOTA was given equal status to the candidates. In fact, NOTA got the highest number of votes in the municipal elections held in five districts of Haryana in 2018. In such a situation, all the candidates were declared ineligible. After this the Election Commission decided to hold re-elections.
If NOTA wins if re-election is held?
In a 2018 order of the Maharashtra State Election Commission, NOTA has been given the status of imaginary election candidate. According to the order, if a candidate gets equal number of votes as the imaginary candidate i.e. NOTA, then the real candidate contesting the election will be declared the winner. If NOTA gets more votes than all others then re-elections will be held. But if even after holding elections no candidate is able to get more votes than NOTA, then elections will not be held for the third time. In such a situation, the candidate who gets the most votes after NOTA is declared the winner. According to the order, these rules of the Maharashtra State Election Commission are limited to the elections in the state.
