Delhi: Former chief election commissioner SY Quraishi on Thursday said that the recent record high voter turnout in elections in Delhi was thanks to various electoral reforms India has made in the past many years, at a memorial lecture on the 35th death anniversary of the veteran politician Bhim Sen Sachar.
Apart from making the electoral process entirely peaceful, Quraishi said that more women have voted in 17 of the 22 states where elections have been held in the last few years. He also said that the Election Commission has been first to introduce the 'third sex' option in India, for at least a million transgender people in the country and that census is now following their footsteps.
The former chief election commissioner also said there's a good reason why voting in India is not mandatory. Public fines would only lead to more legal cases and have little chance of being sorted out. In Australia, where voting is mandatory, the said authorities face a bigger problem of following up such cases. Instead, he said, India is achieving more and ensuring better voter turnout by educating its voters. with successful campaigns like 'pappu can't vote aha'.
Quraishi also said, opinion polls should be banned and paid media, regulated. Soli Sorabjee, former Attorney-General of India, who was also presiding at the event, said that perhaps opinion polls should only be regulated, but not banned.
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