What is freedom and democracy?

What is the reason that the voting percentage is still 40 to 50% or just more in certain parts of India even after so many years of democracy and freedom?

• Voting percentage is more than last time and some states registered a growth of 10% or more. But still the entire figure is around 50%. That being said, there are more than 40 to 50 % of votes not being polled and that could change the results any side. In most cases a candidate might be winning only in thousands of votes that could be 1% or just little more. If these missed votes were polled then we might be having a completely different winner or the same. What could be the reason for this? What needs to be done to increase? What is the reason for some states with higher voting percentage more than 75 like NE, WB, KL, TN but not with the rest? Phase 1–7 April Turnout was 75% in Assam and 84% in Tripura. Phase 2 - 9 and 11 April Turnout was recorded at 82.5% in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagaland, 71% in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachal_Pradesh, 66% in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghalaya and 70% in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manipur. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizoram's voting was deferred to 11 April, where the turnout was 60%. Phase 3–10 April About 11 crores of people were eligible to vote for 91 seats. Turnout  was 76% in Kerala, 64% in Delhi, 55.98% in Madhya Pradesh, 54.13% in  Maharashtra, 65% in Uttar Pradesh and 66.29% in Jammu.Kerala and Chandigarh set new voter turnout records. A higher proportion of eligible electors voted in 2014 than in 2009. As of noon only five people had voted in Sameli in Dantewada district in Chhattisgarh abstained from voting due to  threats from the CPI (Maoist). One of the constituency candidates, Soni  Sori, a tribal from the AAP, said: "I feel very sad seeing the situation  here, as people are not able to come and cast their votes. It is their  helplessness, I understand that, because I have lived in this village. I  will not accuse the villagers for this." Prior to voting in the day, a  CPI (Maoist) landmine blew up a jeep that was ferrying paramilitary  soldiers who were patrolling Munger district in Bihar causing two deaths  and three injuries. Phase 4–12 April Voter turnout set new records or were near record levels with 75% in Goa, 75% in Assam, 81.8% in Tipura and 76% in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikkim Phase 5–17 April The largest voting day involved nearly 20 crores eligible voters, 1,769 candidates for 121 seat. The voting turnout in Uttar Pradesh was  62%, West Bengal was 80%, over 70% in Odisha, 69% in Jammu and Kashmir,  54% in Madhya Pradesh and 62% in Jharkhand. Manipur had 74% and Maharashtra had a 61.7% turnout. In Karnataka, the average voting was 65% as against 58% in the previous elections, though urban voters were lower. In Chhattisgarh, the voter turnout was 63.44% compared to 57.6% in  2009, while Rajasthan recorded a 63.25% voter turnout, compared to  48.09% in 2009. In Bihar's seven constituencies, the turnout was 56%, compared to 39% in 2009. Overall turnout on the day was over 65% and nearly all constituencies had higher voter turnout in 2009 The sixth phase of polling for the Lok Sabha elections ended in 117  seats in 11 states and a Union Territory on Thursday with more than  average polling in Tamil Nadu (39 seats) and low turnouts in Maharashtra  (19 seats), Uttar Pradesh (12 seats), Madhya Pradesh (10 seats) and  Rajasthan (five seats). The highest polling however was recorded  on the six seats in West Bengal at 82 and the lowest was in one seat in  Jammu and Kashmir - 28 per cent. In Jharkhand, there was 63 per  cent polling on four seats while poll percentage in MP was 64.04. The  voter turnout in Rajasthan was 59.2 per cent Poll percentage recorded in J&K today is 28 per cent. Tamil Nadu recorded a polling percentage of 73, same as in 2009.

• Answer:

  Rather than looking at the raw percentages of voters, consider that almost every state has increased it's vote percentages by huge amounts compared to the last LS elections. Also understand the voting population has increased dramatically and millions of new voters have registered. Thus, if we take the huge number of new registered voters and see that almost all voting percentages have increased by 10% and higher, it's amazing that millions of new votes have been added to the total. Edit: The above answer was to a different question. The answer to the current question is as follows: A good percentage of these unpolled votes are probably due to mistakes or personal reasons such as changes of address, wrong booths (I myself had to travel nearly 10 km to get to my booth instead of one which would have been walking distance), illness, missing voters lists etc. Another reason could be fear. There were Maoist and Naxal blasts near some polling booths and these would cause enough fear in people to not want to vote. These terrorists campaign for not voting which is terrorism and this could mean a lot of votes are lost. But one big reason could also be laziness and apathy. Mumbai has consistently seen pathetic voting percentages and even now it is the poor who vote more than the rich. I have no excuse for these scum except that they should forsake all right to criticism of the government when they aren't even willing to participate. ESPECIALLY with the advent of the NOTA option. Voting should be made compulsory I feel. If defaulters cannot come up with valid excuses, they should be heavily fined.