A vote too far
Friday, April 22, 2011http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110422/jsp/nation/story_13887236.jsp
NRIs have got voting rights for the first time this election. But of the several lakh NRIs from Bengal, only one will be casting his ballot thanks to a clause that they have to be present in person at the booth.
When Sujit Dutta casts his ballot in a Behala booth on April 27, he will become the first non-resident Indian ever to vote in an election in Bengal.
And the last, at least in the 2011 state election.
Election Commission officials said Dutta was the lone NRI from Bengal who had applied to vote under a law passed by Parliament last September that, for the first time, gave overseas Indian citizens the right to vote in home elections.
Why is the number so low? Some NRI Bengalis The Telegraph spoke to provided the answer.
Arindam Das, a post-doctorate fellow at Landoltweg, Germany, said he had initially been “thrilled” when he learnt about the voting rights granted to NRIs by the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill, 2010.
Then came the disappointment. He learnt that an NRI had to be physically present at his constituency to vote.
“I find this clause illogical,” Das said over the phone. “That means I have to travel all the way to India to exercise my franchise. My American friends cast their votes online from here, sitting in their homes in Germany.”
Das is one among several lakh NRIs who call Bengal their home but will miss their chance to vote this election.
“My wife and I had recently travelled to India,” said Sourav Chakraborty, a 28-year-old hardware engineer settled in Taiwan.
“In India, we came to know about this amended law that allows NRIs like us to vote. We wanted to exercise our right but we cannot go back again within this short span just to cast our votes.”
Sourav’s wife Suchandra sounded equally disappointed. “Had we known about this new amendment beforehand, we might have planned our trip accordingly,” she rued. The couple had last voted in the 2006 Assembly polls in Bengal.
Dutta, who owns a construction business in Muscat, however, is determined to travel to Calcutta and vote on April 27.
“I have been living away from India for the past 22 years. I want to go back and settle there within a couple of years,” he said over the phone.
“Also, I did not have a voter card all this while. So I thought this was a good opportunity to get myself enrolled so that I do not have any problem when I return to India for good. The extra cost (of travelling to India to vote) would be worth it.”
Election Commission officials acknowledged that this clause about having to be present physically to cast one’s vote had kept the total number of NRI voters at the Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry elections down to about 30.
“The number didn’t cross 10 in any of the states,” an official said.
Somnath De, officer on special duty (information technology), who is in charge of the Election Commission cell dealing with NRI applications in Bengal confirmed that he had received just one application —- from Dutta.
“This figure is exceptionally low,” he conceded.
Asked his opinion about the requirement that the NRI be physically present to vote, De said: “This is a new process. We have to give it some time to see the response, don’t we? We will provide the feedback to the government.”
Even the process of applying to vote is cumbersome for NRIs compared with the system in, say, America or Britain whose overseas citizens can apply online.
NRIs, in contrast, must send a host of documents by post to the election registration officer (ERO) of their particular constituency. Alternatively, their relatives or friends can physically hand over the documents, if they have them, to the ERO.
All the EROs’ addresses are available on the Election Commission website as well as at all of India’s missions abroad.
Under America’s Federal Voting Assistance Program, though, all an overseas US citizen needs to do is fill in a Federal Post Card Application that is available on the Internet. Once the application is submitted either through email or fax to the local election board of his home constituency, he becomes eligible to vote online through the official website of the Program.
Overseas British citizens can vote through postal ballot or by proxy voting. The voter needs to fill in a registration form available on the Internet and submit it to the electoral registration office of his home constituency.
In case he opts for the postal system, a postal ballot is sent to him around a week before the election that he needs to return through post in time. In case of proxy voting, someone authorised by the voter back home can physically cast the vote on his behalf.
De, the election official, said Dutta would not have any trouble voting on April 27. “The papers he has submitted are all in order. All he has to do is to be present in his constituency to vote.”
