To extend electronically transmitted postal ballot system (ETPBS) facility to overseas voters, the Election Commission (EC) has approached the Law Ministry to permit Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to cast their votes, so far available to service voters, to eligible overseas Indian voters. As of now, overseas Indians are free to cast their votes in constituencies they are registered. This regulation is seen as restrictive as only a few thousand Indians living overseas have registered as voters, the maximum being from Kerala and Punjab.
In a letter to the legislative secretary in the law ministry on November 27, the EC said with the successful execution of ETPBS in case of service voters, it is now "confident" that the facility can also be extended to the overseas electors. For overseas electors, the EC has said the voter will have to intimate the returning officer that he or she wants to use a postal ballot. The returning officer will then electronically transmit the ballot paper to the voter by means specified by the EC. The Commission requested the government to make necessary amendments at the earliest "which will go a long way in not only facilitating exercise of right of overseas electors but also further boosting the image of the country internationally".
"The Commission is technically and administratively ready to extend this facility in general elections to legislative assemblies of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry," the EC said. Elections in these state are due sometime in April-June next year.
It said the poll panel has been receiving several representations from Indian diaspora residing abroad to facilitate voting through postal ballots since such overseas electors are not in a position to be present in their polling area as travelling to India for this purpose is a costly affair and otherwise also, they cannot leave the country of their residence owing to specific compulsions of employment, education or other engagements. "Due to protocols associated with COVID-19, problem further gets compounded," the letter to the law ministry said. The poll body observed that Section 62 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 envisages the right to vote for every citizen registered in the electoral roll who is not subject to disqualification for voting.
"Therefore, it is necessary to explore all avenues to enable exercise of a franchise by all eligible electors," it said.
According to rough estimates, there are about one crore Indians settled abroad, of whom about 60-70 lakh could be of eligible voting age. They could hold considerable sway in election results, especially in states such as Punjab, Gujarat and Kerala, where a number of expats hail from. Under ETPBS, postal ballot is send electronically to a service voter. The service voter downloads it and uses a specific envelope to return it to the returning officer of his constituency. The postal ballot should reach the returning officer by 8.00 am on the day of the counting. Counting of votes begin with counting of postal ballots at 8.00 am.
Personnel of armed forces posted outside their constituencies in forward areas, personnel of central armed police forces posted in outside their constituencies state police personnel posted on poll duty, embassy staff are considered as service voters. The EC has suggested amending the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 to extend ETPBS for overseas electors. The rules were amended in October, 2016 to allow service voters use ETPBS.
In 2018, the government tried to grant proxy voting rights to overseas electors through an amendment to the Representation of the People Act 1951. The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha and was awaiting Rajya Sabha’s approval when it lapsed with the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.