EC, Govt defer on modalities for NRI enrolment in voters list

Millions of NRIs wishing to get voting rights may have to wait a little longer to see their names in electoral rolls as differences between the government and the Election Commission have resulted in delay in finalising modalities for enrolment.

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi today said two rounds of discussions were held among Election Commission, External Affairs Ministry and his Ministry to finalise the modalities but consensus eluded them.

Parliament had in the Monsoon session passed the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill, 2010 to allow NRIs to vote in Indian elections and subsequently government had issued a gazette notification in this regard.

"The Election Commission had made some suggestions for entry of NRIs in electoral rolls which we felt had some practical difficulties. We suggested to them that the procedure should be simple and practical," Ravi said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, addressing the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas earlier this year, had indicated that Indian passport holders living abroad could get voting rights by the time of next Lok Sabha elections in 2014.

Ravi said NRIs, "who have not acquired citizenship of any other country and are living abroad owing to employment, education or otherwise, are eligible to register their names in the electoral rolls" in their places as mentioned in their passport.

Officials indicated that the EC had suggested that Indian Missions should throughly examine credentials of an applicant before his or her name is included in electoral rolls but Ministry of External Affairs apparently opposed the idea saying it would be difficult for the embassies to take that much of workload.

Ravi said he will meet External Affairs Minister S M Krishna shortly to discuss the issue.

An estimated 11 million NRIs are living in various countries across the world and voting rights has been a longstanding demand of the community.

According to the amendment, an NRI will be able to exercise the franchise only if he or she is present in the constituency on the polling day.

As per the existing rules, an NRI's name gets deleted from the voters list if he or she stays outside the country for more than six months at a stretch.

The new law will allow an Indian citizen residing abroad to enrol in voter's list and exercise his franchise even if he or she remained away from place of residence in India for more than six months owing to employment, education or otherwise.