Dear friends, One of my friend forwarded this message to me. This is very thought provoking and may be relevant to Assam in particular. Yours sincerely,
Dr J K Goswami Article 49-0 of the Constitution Did you know that there is a system in our constitution, as per the 1969 act, in section "49-O" that a person can go to the polling booth, confirm his identity, get his finger marked and convey the presiding election officer that he doesn't want to vote anyone! Yes such a feature is available, but obviously these seemingly notorious leaders have never disclosed it. This is called "49-O". Why should you go and say "I VOTE NOBODY"... because, in a ward, if a candidate wins, say by 123 votes, and that particular ward has received "49-O" votes more than 123, then that polling will be cancelled and will have to be re-polled . Not only that, but the candidature of the contestants will be removed and they cannot contest the re-polling, since people had already expressed their decision on them . This would bring fear into parties and hence look for genuine candidates for their parties for election. This would change the way, of our whole political system... it is seemingly surprising why the election commission has not revealed such a feature to the public....
