Having exercised my right to vote in the 2014 Indian general elections as a Indian citizen and in 2015 UK general election as a commonwealth citizen, this post aims to bring out the difference in elections between the two countries.
India having been ruled by the British not so long ago, follows the same electoral system of 'First Past the Post' or 'Winner-takes-all', where the election is won by the candidate receiving more votes than any others.[1]
India used to have a ballot system but has now moved on to Electronic Voting Machines (EVM). The British still use ballot papers. India does not have postal votes.
Registering to vote is really quick in the UK. It took me less that 2 weeks to get my name on the register list. Whereas in India, it takes months requiring a lot of documents. Only citizens of India are allowed to vote in any elections held in India whereas commonwealth citizens staying in UK at the time of elections can vote. The minimum age of voting is 18 in both countries.
Another important difference is, Indian elections have the option of "None of the above (NOTA)". It is a voting option that
allows voters who support none of the candidates available to them to
register an official vote of "none of the above"[2]. The sad part is even if the 'NOTA' count is the highest, the candidate with the next highest vote wins the election.
References
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_India
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