Expressing concern over the falling percentage of voting, Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on Saturday urged the Election Commission to make voting mandatory.

He also suggested holding elections to all representative bodies simultaneously.

The Election Commission should go into the cause of the falling voting percentage rates and evolve methods to arrest it, the vice president said, inaugurating the state Election Commissioner's sixth meeting in Jaipur.

Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami inaugurated the meet.

In some constituencies, the polling record was so low it could not be considered a true verdict of the voters, Shekhawat said, adding that unless measures were taken to check it, elections would not produce true representatives of the people.

Shekhawat suggested making the exercise of franchise mandatory and preparing the voters' list in such a way that it could be amended when needed.

He also proposed simultaneous elections to panchayats and civic bodies along with Parliamentary and Assembly polls as this would eliminate problems like caste politics, criminalisation of politics and use of money and muscle-power.

The EC should also evolve a mechanism making it compulsory for contestants to express views on national issues to ensure they have concerns for the people, he said.

Shekhawat asked the EC to dispose petitions via a fast-track medium and make suitable changes for quick disposal of disputes.

The CEC said the Commission would work toward making the voters' list more beneficial so it could be used for elections to panchayats, civic bodies, assemblies and Parliament.