Out of 11.4 million NRIs, only 16,000 registered as Overseas Indian electors

Saturday, 05/11/2016

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=167677&boxid=58864&uid=&dat=2016-11-05

Fatehgarh Sahib : Despite having 11.4 million non-resident Indians across the world, at present only around 16,000 of them are registered on the electoral rolls as Overseas Indian electors. This fact has been shared by Rajesh Malhotra Additional Director General (Media and Communications) Election Commission of India.

According to Malhotra, the provisions of the Representation of People Act, 1950 was amended from February 10, 2011 to make special provisions for citizens of India residing outside the country to get enrolled as an elector in constituency in which his, her place of residence in India as mentioned in his passport is located.

He said Election Commission of India is now taking up steps to reach out to the overseas Indians so that they get enrolled and also vote in elections in their respective constituencies. An online competition is also a part of the initiative to engage with target population and seek their contribution to cause ‘Every Indian Vote counts’. He said the survey shall run through the month of November-December 2016 while the online competition will run through the month of November.

It may be mentioned here that in 2010, the Indian government had announced registration of overseas NRIs under the Representation of People Act, 1950, by amending the law to include their names in the electoral rolls of the constituency mentioned on their passports after proper verification.

Before the amendment, NRIs were given voting rights only if they had stayed in the constituency for at least nine months before the voting day. In the 2012 assembly elections, only three NRIs had registered for voting. The election commission’s online campaign launched two months ago to get registered NRIs (who have not surrendered India’s citizenship and passport) as voters could attract only 95 individuals till October, 2016, before that in all 178 had registered themselves as voters online. Maximum number (23) of NRIs from a district who got themselves registered belong to Nawanshahr. Majority of districts have negligible registrations and some are yet to open an account.

Satnam Singh Chahal Executive Director of NAPA said NRI community is very grateful to the government of India for granting them voting rights in elections but unfortunately no mechanism has been established where people can vote by mail or in Indian missions abroad.

An officer of election commission said, “We have given an option to get registered and want more and more people to avail the benefit.” On the facility to casting a vote online, he said Supreme Court had issued a directive in 2015, but it is yet to be cleared by Parliament.