On Wednesday 18 Mar 2009, Dinesh Shah wrote:
On Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 11:40 PM, Raj Mathur raju@linux-delhi.org
wrote:
[Without prejudice to the current issue being discussed]
On Tuesday 17 Mar 2009, Dinesh Shah wrote:
[snip] Let me repeat myself, we can only go by the opinion of the people who BOTHERED TO VOTE. This is HOW democracy works.
Er, maybe not much longer...
SC keeps door open on negative voting:
NOT VOTING is not same as negative voting. You still have to take trouble and let people know (in the above case EC) that you reject all options available on the list. Do you see the action required from you verses not BOTHERING TO got to VOTING BOOTH?
So maybe LUG/mailing polls should also have a ``Don't care'' or ``Too trivial to vote for'' or ``None of the choices above suits my current frame of mind'' or ``This crack is good, here, take a hit from the pipe'' option too :)
That's my point! If you don't agree to options offered what YOU REQUIRED TO DO is
- Ask for alternative(s)
- If not available register your protest
Or the polling commission goes back to the drawing boards.
Just not bothering to speak does not mean your VOTE will be registered.
Besides one must have the following 3 rules 1) Total votes polled MUST exceed 50% of the electorate. 2) winner votes must exceed sum of ALL votes against him 3) Negative votes will be considered as being against the winner.
It does not require any great mathematical brilliance to see the logic. The above prevents policies that favour the vocal minority from believing that their racket is music and thus prevents penalising the silent majority.
The above holds good only for polls on policies. This method again is deeply flawed when applied to electing representatives. In a "proper" democracy one would have proportional representation.
When changes are required in the constitution (immutable principles on which an institution is built ) one would require yet another set of poll rules. Thus one would not be able to make changes to the ground rules without a very tough selection process AND leaves the citizens in no doubt wether they belong to a country or have to move elsewhere.
To me moral policing is the very antithesis of democracy.