abstain

v. avoid; refrain from

Abstention is a term in election procedure for when a participant in a vote either does not go to vote (on election day) or, in parliamentary procedure, is present during the vote, but does not cast a ballot. Abstention must be contrasted with "blank vote", in which a participant in a vote cast a deliberately unlegitimate vote (drawing pictures on the ballot, etc.) or in which he simply casts a blank vote: a "blank (or white) voter" has voted, although his vote may be considered a spoilt vote, depending on each legislation, while an abstentionnist hasn't voted. Both forms (abstention and blank vote) may or may not, depending on the circumstances, be considered as protest vote.
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Verb
1. refrain from voting
(hypernym) refrain, forbear
2. choose no to consume; "I abstain from alcohol"
(synonym) refrain, desist
(antonym) consume, ingest, take in, take, have
(hyponym) fast
(derivation) abstinence, abstention

(v. t.)
To hinder; to withhold.
  

(v. i.)
To hold one's self aloof; to forbear or refrain voluntarily, and especially from an indulgence of the passions or appetites; -- with from.
  

verb
not to do something voluntarily; he abstained from taking any drugs for two months; they decided to abstain from sexual intercourse