Page 126 - Leap of Faith Vol - 2

Leap of Faith Journey of Indian Elections

was found in the summary revision of electoral roll
published on February 14, 2014.

The Sixteenth General Elections, 2014 were staggered into
nine phases- April 7, 9, 10, 12, 17, 24, 30 and May 7 & 12.
However, in most of the states/UT (21), the polls were single
phased. Only two states saw six phased polling. These
elections were historic in terms of electoral participation.
The voters' turnout stood at 66.44 percent. The imprint of
SVEEP was evident in the electoral participation.
SYMBOL Election Commission of India's international cooperation
got a strong fillip during S.Y. Quraishi and V.S. Sampath's
NONE OF THE ABOVE (NOTA)
tenures. India was one of the founding members of the A-
ukVs k - mijkDs r ea s ls dkbs Z ugha WEB (Association of World Election Bodies) headquartered
in Incheon, South Korea during 2011-12 as well as Forum of
the Election Management Bodies of South Asia (FEMBoSA).
NOTA symbol Election Commission of India was nominated to the first
Executive Council of the A-WEB and played a leading role
in finalising the charter, vision and mission of this global
On August 14, 2013 the Ministry of Law and Justice body. The Commission also began cooperation with
amended the Conduct of Elections Rule, 1961 making the
introduction of the VVPAT possible. It was first put into
action on September 4, 2013 in bye-election in Noksen
(ST) Constituency in Nagaland.

A judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court dated
September 27, 2013 paved the way for inclusion of “None
of the above” (NOTA) option in EVM/Ballot Paper. However,
under the Sections 66 and 67 of the Representation of the
People Act, 1951 Election Commission of India is still
obliged to declare the results of the poll, and also report the
same to the appropriate authorities for the publication of
names in the official gazette. Therefore, NOTA option
could never be used as an instrument to negate the
elections. The highest polled candidate would win still.

India's electorate size had grown by 34.45 percent from CEC V.S. Sampath engaged in deliberations with
605,880,192 electors in 1998 to 814,591,184 in 2014.This members of international Election Management Bodies

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