Figure 4: Voter turnout (%) in India during 2004 and 2009 elections data courtesy the Election Commission of India
Why is the decrease in number of voters an important issue? It is so because the Indian democracy is based on three pillars, the legislature the judiciary and the executive. The legislature is the body that we as citizens elect. When a citizen doesn’t vote he/she is refusing to participate in the democracy. In the past few elections the winning candidates are not getting even 50% of the votes. So if only 50% of the citizens are voting, it implies that the candidate is being supported by less than one fourth of the population in that particular constituency.
We say that democracy is the rule of the majority, but this definition becomes void if people don’t vote. A candidate elected by only 20% of the people will make policies which favour only those 20%.This will adversely affect the running of the constituency and the government.
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