In my opinion, voting should not be mandatory. It is up to voters to cast a ballot. In most democratic countries, participating in national elections is a right of citizenship. On the other hand, some countries adopted compulsory voting under the belief that the government will be more legitimate when higher proportion of the population participates. However, there are two major disadvantages of compulsory voting. First, mandatory voting can lead to an infringement of citizen’s freedom associated with democratic elections. It may discourage citizens from voting as compulsory voting might be perceived as source of oppression. According to the OECD, forcing citizens to vote may result in an increased number of invalid and blank votes. Then there is rising concern of random votes. Voters may check off candidates at random and there is a higher possibility of voting to concentrate on top leading candidates. Accordingly, I believe voting should leave to the discretion of citizen’s will.

Thank you for this Aciel! To be frank, I also did not participate in a lot of elections in my own country. I know, I am not a good citizen. However, I agree it's my freedom of choice. Have a good one!