The plea before the Supreme Court by one Shiv Khera has drawn from the 170th report of the Law Commission of India on ‘Reform of the Electoral Laws’ dated May 29, 1999.
In this report, the Law Commission had recommended an alternative method of election whereby no candidate should be declared elected unless they obtain at least 50% of the votes cast.
Additionally, the Commission proposed the introduction of a ‘negative vote’ option for voters who were not inclined to choose any of the candidates.
According to the recommendation, for the purpose of calculating the 50% threshold, even negative votes would be counted as ‘votes cast’.
In the event no candidate receives 50% or more of the votes cast in the run-off, there should a fresh election from that constituency, it suggested.
Source: Barandbench
