Can NRIs Vote by Post ?

• At present, postal ballots are allowed for certain categories of of voters living in India.
• The new proposal is for overseas voters.
• The EC told the government it had received representations from the Indian diaspora about facilitating voting through postal votes since travelling to India only for this purpose is a “costly affair”.

• Otherwise, too they cannot leave the country of their residence owing to specific compulsions of employment, education or other engagements.

CURRENT VOTING PROCESS FOR INDIAN CITIZENS LIVING ABROAD

• An NRI can vote in the constituency in which her place of residence, as mentioned in the passport, is located.

• Voting rights for NRIs were introduced only in 2011, through an amendment to the Representation of the People Act 1950.

WHAT IS CURRENT STRENGTH OF NRI VOTERS?

• According to a UN report of 2015, India’s diaspora population is the largest in the world at 16 million people.

• In last year’s Lok Sabha elections, roughly 25,000 of them flew to India to vote.

HOW POSTAL BALLOTS WORK FOR NRIS?

• According to the EC proposal, any NRI interested in voting through the postal ballot in an election will have to inform the Returning Officer (RO) .
• It should not be later than five days after the notification of the election.
• On receiving such information, the RO will dispatch the ballot paper electronically.
• The NRI voters will download the ballot paper, mark their preference on the printout and send it back .

• It’s not clear, at this moment, if the voter will return the ballot paper herself through ordinary post or drop it off at the Indian Embassy.
• This may then segregate the envelopes constituency-wise and send them to the Chief Electoral Officer of the state concerned for forwarding to the RO.

HOW AND WHEN DID THE PROPOSAL ORIGINATE?

• The EC began to look for options to enable NRIs to vote from overseas after it received several requests, including one from former Rajya Sabha MP  Naveen Jindal.
• Three writ petitions were filed by NRIs in the Supreme Court in 2013 and 2014.

A 12-member committee was set up after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to study mainly three options —

• Voting by post
• Voting at an Indian mission abroad
• Online voting.

• It also shot down the proposal to vote at Indian missions abroad as they do not have adequate resources.
• In 2015, the panel finally recommended that NRIs should be given the “additional alternative options of e-postal ballot and proxy voting”, apart from voting in person.

• The Law Ministry accepted the recommendation on proxy voting.

DO ALL POLITICAL PARTIES SUPPORT POSTAL BALLOT VOTING?

• The 12-member committee appointed by the EC had consulted national political parties.
• Among parties, only the NCP has expressed complete support to the EC for postal voting for NRIs.

SOURCES : TOI

• According to the BSP, BJP and CPI, postal ballots were not a viable option due to time constraint.
• The Congress was not in favour of sending the postal ballot paper electronically.
• Interestingly, the MEA expressed strong reservations over attesting the declaration that NRI voters will have to send along with their marked ballot papers.
• The MEA had said “diplomatic missions do not have the logistical wherewithal to handle attestation for a large number of overseas electors” .

PROXY VOTING RIGHTS TO OVERSEAS ELECTORS?

• The Union Cabinet passed the proposal on proxy voting rights for NRIs in 2017.
• The government then brought a Bill amending the Representation of the People Act 1950.

• This proposal hasn’t been revived yet.
• In its letter last week, the EC pushed only for postal voting rights for NRIs, not proxy voting.
• To extend the postal voting facility to overseas voters, the government only needs to amend the Conduct of Election Rules 1961.
• It doesn’t require Parliament’s nod.