While many could not excercise their voting rights as their names were missing in the electoral rolls, there were several who lined up outside polling booths to excercise the negative vote option. The district saw nearly 900 voters from 21 constituencies who came to the polling booths but did not vote.

Experts say that the number could have been much higher if the officers at the polling centres were aware of the option. However, officers at several booths were not aware of the option.

Though the Conduct of Election rules, 1961, 49-O, gives the electors the option of not recording his vote, the voter has to make the entry in form 17A by the presiding officer. “This option serves the voter to register the elector’s opinion of disapproval of the choice of candidates,” said an officer at the election department. Here again, if the number of negative votes in a constituency exceeds the winning margin, the candidate with the highest number of votes will be declared as elected, so it does not affect the voting pattern directly.

Sunita (name changed) from Pune Cantonment who had registered her negative vote said that she was upset that there were no good candidates. Incidentally, the polling booths saw about 160 negative votes being registered and the total polling percentage was lowest in the city at 35 per cent. A total of 184 negative votes were registered in Kothrud assembly constituency while Parvati assembly constituency had nearly 200 negative votes.

However, the rural areas hardly registered any votes. On Tuesday, district collector Chandrakant Dalvi said that there was a good response to negative voting. “We had briefed about this option through press meets and many availed of it,” he had said.

... contd.