Hyderabad: Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) J M Lyngdoh has said that voting should not be made compulsory, as people should have a choice to not vote for "bad candidates."

Interacting with students of NALSAR University of Law near Hyderabad, the former CEC said that he did not agree that voting should be made compulsory.

He reiterated that contemporary politics was "cancerous."

Lyngdoh also rejected the idea of recalling the candidates saying that it would always result in recalling all candidates, a NALSAR release said today (Aug 6, 2004).

On accountability of electoral representatives Lyngdoh said, "It's a relative term, depends on the value system as a town citizen may prefer representative to be accountable while a villager wants his MLA to be capable of rendering a job by any means", the release added.