The truth behind Rule 49-O

An e-mail has been doing the rounds, stating that Mumbaikars can invoke Rule 49-O, which allows them to tick ‘No Vote’ on their ballot, and effect a re-poll with new candidates. The e-mail is a fake, but that hasn’t stopped citizens from asking why 49-O isn’t a viable option

“Our system needs to change”, “Our politicians need to go”, “Our government needs to wake up”: For years, these lines have littered the rhetoric of politicians, activists, and citizens alike. But for a moment recently, the public began to dream of effecting real change, and that to through the medium of democracy — the ballot box.

When an e-mail, titled Rule 49-O, popped up in 21-year-old, Stuti Sakhalkar’s inbox, she broke into a smile. The e-mail stated that if she didn’t trust any of the candidates standing for election, then she had a right to convey to the presiding officer, that she didn’t want to vote. The e-mail even suggested that if this happened, and the number of voters who opted to invoke Rule 49-O were more than the number of votes cast for any of the candidates, then there would be a re-poll. “I was so glad that something like this actually existed,” she says, quickly forwarding the e-mail to everyone on her contact list.

Stuti, however, was a victim of a fake e-mail that has been comforting Mumbaikars in their darkest hours. Although Rule 49-O, stated in the The Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, affirms that the person’s right not to vote would be recognised in the total vote counting process, in no case would there be a re-poll. As of now, what rule 49-O will do is register the person’s signature, or thumbprint. This would also require the voter to reveal their identity, which goes against the system of secret ballots. And even if 49-O votes are more than the winning candidates’ votes, it would not negate the result. There is no judgment as yet on the implications of 49-O toward the upcoming elections, and the barring of candidates from a re-poll. 

However, having decided to register for 49-O, in the hope of effecting genuine change, Stuti, says, “No one deserves our votes at present. No one at all.”  

Retired high court judge, Hosbet Suresh, says, “We have discussed negative voting a number of times during our meets, and even put forth a proposal for the same, but it’s yet to be put into action.” Hosbet who has voted in every election, bar the first, says that the fact that his No vote wouldn’t mean anything saddens him. “There have been so many times, when I actually didn’t believe in any candidate, but voted in the hope of change,” he says.

A representative from VoteIndia.in, a website dedicated to the quest of finding a good government, says that the number of queries about Rule 49-O has increased after the recent terror attacks. “That fake e-mail has been doing the rounds for the past two years, but we encourage people not to vote, just in protest.”

However, a lot of people have been hoping that the e-mail turns out to be a reality. An angry Bikram Bindra, a 20-year-old student from a South Mumbai college, feels that if the rule were executed — the way it has been stated in the e-mail — he would be the first person to cast a negative vote. Ridiculing the statements made by some politicians, he says, “If someone tries to console me by saying that such things happen in big cities, I certainly don’t believe in that kind of government.” In any case, Bikram believes that he would use Rule 49-O to show his dissent.

Even 30-year-old Sudarshan Shetty, who promptly forwarded the e-mail to everyone, so that it reached a wider audience believes that it is imaginative thinking like this that makes us truly function like a democracy. He hopes that someday, the contents of the e-mail would become law: “I am waiting for the day when the Rule is mentioned in school civic textbooks.”