Puneri Pundit voted in the Maharashtra Assembly elections 2009 but unfortunately 50% of Puneris did not cast their votes leaving me wondering as to the reasons behind this. One thing I feel is that when the government declares holiday and that to on a day like Tuesday, lot of people from metros jump on this opportunity and take leaves on Monday to enjoy a long weekend and desired break from work. So the measure from EC to ensure high voting percentage did not work. On the other hand it does bring in a doubt in my mind that was it an intentional move from government? The MNS support figures from urban areas were worrying the ruling party as well as opposition and most of these voters were new and young voters who would typically go on long weekends on any such opportunity.
Whatever may be the reason, 50% of the urban voters said they are not interested in voting. Now if we look at the share of votes by all winning parties, they typically get about 30-35 % of the total votes which means about 15-18% of total voters. Does it really make sense to declare these folks are winners in the election? How should we reduce that fractured voting and ensure that the ruling party really represents majority of us? One idea comes to my mind is that the losing candidates should declare support to top candidates from any constituency until the winner gets 50% of the casted votes at least. This will then show the inclination of the small time players in the field and also let people know as to who was supporting them really from behind.
Another way I feel is that the elections should be conducted on Sundays. The reason I believe they conduct them on weekdays is to allow candidates connect with voters on the weekend. But by conducting the voting on Sunday we can really get a better turn out and hence better representation.
I am happy that since I have voted, I can talk about the government, politics and other issues where I feel we deserve better.