40 voters in Himachal reject all candidates

Shimla :  Forty electors in Himachal Pradesh rejected all the candidates for the assembly polls and went away without voting, an official said here Tuesday.

“Forty voters invoked Rule 49-O of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, by not voting for any candidate in the assembly elections (Nov 4),” Neeraj Sharma, officer on special duty with the state election department, told IANS.

He said the maximum number of 12 voters, who preferred not to exercise their franchise were in Kangra district, followed by Shimla (nine), Sirmaur and Bilaspur (four each), Chamba and Una (three each), Hamirpur and Solan (two each) and Kullu district (one).

Mandi, Kinnaur and Lahaul and Spiti districts saw no voters who used the right to vote for no candidate, Sharma added.

All these voters, who invoked Rule 49-O, underwent all the formalities that were required for voting like getting indelible ink on their fingernails and signing the electoral register to mark attendance but didn’t vote.

According to poll officials, the trend to invoke Rule 49-O indicated awareness among the voters to not give chance to those candidates, who they believe were not fit to give justice to work on being elected.