WHAT CONGRESS AND GANDHI HAVE DONE TO THE UNTOUCHABLES : A FALSE CLAIM 151
candidate must be a Musalman; if it is a Christian Electorate the voter and the candidate must be a Christian and so on. The election is decided by a majority of votes cast by voters of the particular community.
- A General Electorate is the normal usual form of the electorate, an electorate which comprises of voters of all communities living in an area but which are outside the system of Separate Electorates. It is called a General Electorate because it is an electorate in which neither community nor religion finds any recognition. It is an electorate of the Rest i.e. other than Muslims, Indian Christians, Europeans and Anglo-Indians. In a General Electorate :—
( i ) No voter who is in a Separate Electorate has a right to vote in or stand for election.
( ii ) Every voter who is on its electoral roll has a right to vote and to stand for election without reference to his caste, creed or community.
( iii ) The result of the election is determined by a simple majority of votes cast.
- A Joint Electorate is a cross between Separate Electorate and the General Electorate. It has some things in common with Separate Electorate and the General Electorate. But it also differs from both in other particulars. The points of agreement and of difference are set out below :—
( i ) Joint Electorate compared with Separate Electorate :
(1) Joint Electorate is akin to Separate Electorate in as much as both aim to earmark a seat for a particular community.
(2) Joint Electorate differs from a Separate Electorate in two respects :—
( a ) In a Separate Electorate the right to vote in the election is confined to voters of the community for which the seat is earmarked, while in a Joint Electorate, though the seat is earmarked for a particular community, in other words though the right to stand is confined to a member of a particular community, the right to vote in the election for that seat is open to other communities which make up the General Electorate.