Fresh polls if NOTA gets maximum votes

Pradeep Sharma

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 22

For the first time in the electoral history of the country, none of the above (NOTA) will be a ‘fictional electoral candidate’ having bearing on the results in the December 16 municipal corporation (MC) elections in the state.

“If all candidates receive fewer votes than NOTA then none of the contesting candidates will be declared elected and fresh elections will be held for the post,” State Election Commissioner Dalip Singh said here on Thursday.

Elections to the five municipal corporations of Hisar, Rohtak, Yamunanagar, Panipat and Karnal are slated to be held on December 16. The election to the post of mayor will be held directly for the first time.

Dalip Singh said the candidates securing fewer votes than NOTA would not be eligible to file nominations for the repoll. Fresh election would start from the nomination stage itself, he asserted.

“If in the re-election, NOTA again gets the highest number of votes then the candidate with the second highest votes will be declared elected,” he added.

Dalip Singh claimed the new decision on NOTA, which denoted a voter’s right not to vote for any candidate while maintaining his right to secrecy, had been taken after ‘due deliberations’ by the commission in the spirit of the Supreme Court.