The truest vote

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily was perhaps being rather too nuanced when he said in Parliament: Its an ideal situation to have compulsory voting.

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily was perhaps being rather too nuanced when he said in Parliament: Its an ideal situation to have compulsory voting. He was reacting to the introduction by the Congresss Jai Prakash Agarwal of a private members bill on compulsory voting. The idea got support,though some of it was qualified on provisions for punitive action against non-voters,from MPs drawn from different political parties.

Just days after the Gujarat governor returned a bill seeking to make voting in local body elections compulsory in the state,an echo of the demand in Parliament may appear intriguing. But the idea that urgent electoral reform is needed to make democracy more meaningful is sweeping through vast legislative landscapes these days. On May 6,Britain votes in its most interesting general election in decades and the three leading political parties are combating a popular disenchantment with politicians by promising to reconfigure the House of Commons representativeness.

Indeed,in this suddenly triangular contest,an expected fallout of the Liberal Democrats potential to render the next Parliament hung is movement on some form of proportional representation that is,a break from Westminsters first-past-the-post template,possibly through a single transferable vote. The idea that underpins proportional representation is not too different from compulsory voting: that the true essence of the mandate is best distilled by mathematically determining the will of the entire electorate. Therefore,goes the reasoning,anything short of a full turnout with compulsory voting is far from perfect as is victory in a constituency with less than half the votes cast.

Yet,while it is healthy to have high turnouts and to narrow the difference between votes percentages secured and seats in the legislature,the challenge is to attain the ideal by democratic means,means that are neither coercive,nor so formulaic as to unbundle the wisdom of the crowds into pressure groups. This is why optimal turnouts are instead better sought through enabling provisions like mandatory time off to vote,and by giving incentives to candidates to reach out to the undecided and swing voters by broadbasing the campaign.