What happens if NOTA gets the majority of votes?
Even if NOTA gets the majority of votes, the candidate who gets highest votes after NOTA wins the election. So practically NOTA has just a moral authority at present and no much significance at present.
What happens if NOTA wins?
In India, for example, there is what we like to call NOTA-lite, or faux-NOTA. In this scenario, NOTA is merely a symbolic protest option with no formalised consequences for the result if it ‘wins’. In other words, even if NOTA were to poll the most votes, nothing would happen. The next placed candidate would take office anyway.
Can Nota be used to replace invalid votes?
An option of NOTA is there only as a substitute of invalid votes which were in paper ballot system. In paper ballot system if a candidate did not want to vote for any particular person then he or she would stamp incorrectly and the vote will be counted as invalid.
What does Nota mean for Democracy?
In exercising the NOTA option, the voter is participating in the electoral process, and thus, democracy itself.
How many voters opted for NOTA in India?
The figure, however, was lower than 1.5\% of the total voters. Around 50,000 voters opted for NOTA in Delhi; 3.56 lakh in Chhattisgarh; 5.9 lakh in Madhya Pradesh and 5.67 lakh in Rajasthan. There was a similar provision before NOTA.
Are voters casting negative votes without any legitimate justification?
“Voters, who without any legitimate justification, have not been exercising the valuable right of franchise the Indian Constitution has conferred on them have, unwittingly thus, been casting a negative vote against all the contesting candidates without intending to do so,” Advani wrote in a blog.