Voting must be made mandatory, says LK Advani

Lal Krishna Advani, senior leader of the BJP and MP from Gandhinagar, emphasised on the need to implement the mandatory voting for citizens of the country.

A legislation in this connection has already been passed in the Gujarat assembly and it is now lying with the governor of the state for her consent.
Advani, with his wife, was in the city to cast vote for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation elections. The two exercised their franchise at a polling booth in Khanpur.

After voting, the senior leader said, "I have come to know that so far only 25% voting has taken place and I think it is very low. Probably the Navratri festival has something to do with it."

Advani further said that a legislation to make voting compulsory has already been passed in the state and it should be implemented across the country.

"Many democratic countries like Australia and Italy have made voting compulsory and it will be good if we too can implement it. I recently suggested during a meeting in Jaipur that, mandatory voting should be implemented not only in civic polls but also in parliamentary and assembly polls," said Advani.

It is pertinent to note that, last December, the state
assembly had passed a bill to make voting mandatory and suggested 50% reservation (up from the 33%) for women in local self governance bodies.

The bill is yet to get the nod from the governor.