Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW Vol. 5 Num 1066 Fri. June 01, 2007       Letters to Editor The "no vote" Anis Chowdhury, Professor of Economics. University of Western Sydney Australia The online edition of The Daily Star (May 20, 2007), reported EC's draft recommendation for the provision of "no vote" in the ballot paper. Apparently, this is to allow the voters to express their lack of confidence in the candidates. I find this very interesting, but the responses during the briefing were contradictory. In one place, the EC says that the number of the no vote would not affect the results; it is merely academic. But in another place it says that there would be a fresh election if more than 50% of voters cast "no vote". In any case, I don't think there is any need for the provision of "no vote" when voting is not compulsory. (Voting is compulsory in Australia where not casting a vote invites penalty). Any one who does not have confidence in the candidates can choose to abstain from voting under the present system of non-compulsory voting. So, if the EC wants to gauge the level of no confidence then it can look at the percentage of absentees. If the total vote cast is less than 50% then it can call for a fresh election. This would be much easier to implement and there would be no inconsistency in the legislation.