Abstention Campaigns
There have been a number of instances around the world where popular movements have boycotted elections.
In South Africa, there is a strong presence of abstention campaigns that make the structural argument that no political party truly represents the poor. The "No Land! No House! No Vote!" Campaign which was started by the Landless Peoples Movement in 2004, is the largest of such campaigns. These campaigns have been met with significant repression.
In 1999, a human rights activist was convicted in Belarus for calling not to participate in the local elections he considered to be undemocratic. In 2004, UN Human Rights Committee has found the conviction to violate freedom of expression.
Other social movements and civil society organisations in other parts of the world also have similar campaigns or non-voting preferences. These include the Naxalites in India, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation in Mexico and various anarchist and left communist oriented movements. In Mexico's mid term 2009 elections there was strong support for 'Nulo' - a campaign to vote for no one. In India poor people's in movements Singur, Nandigram and Lalgarh have rejected parliamentary politics (as well as the NGO and Maoist alternatives).
There have also been no vote campaigns in Canada and Spain.
In September 2011, the New York Times argued that there was a growing "scorn for voting" around the world.
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