NOTA was introduced in 2013 after a Supreme Court (SC) direction in a public Interest litigation filed by the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL).
About NOTA
- It provides voters an option to reject all running candidates, signaling their disapproval of the available choices.
- Even if NOTA gets the majority of votes, the candidate with the second-highest number of votes is declared the winner.
- SC held that NOTA option is meant only for universal adult suffrage and direct elections.
- Globally, It is also practiced in countries such as France, Belgium, Brazil, Finland and Sweden.
Benefits of NOTA
- Avenue to express dissatisfaction by Citizens
- Incentivises greater participation in the democratic process of voting.
- Aims to encourage high moral and ethical values among citizens as well as politicians
- Indirectly compels political parties to nominate better candidates.
Challenges of NOTA
- Symbolic significance as it does not have an impact on the result of election, Meager amount of votes polled on NOTA, etc.
NOTA option can be further strengthen as done in local body election of Maharashtra.
- In Maharashtra local body election, re-election may be conducted when majority votes are NOTA.