Kerala to bat for online voting for its diaspora

The Kerala cabinet will take a decision next week whether to adopt online voting for its diaspora, a minister said Friday.

"The decision to include the Indian diaspora in voter lists was taken by the UPA government and the Supreme Court is looking into the matter. The Kerala cabinet will decide next week on the issue. We might consider filing a petition regarding this in the apex court," K.C. Joseph, minister for diaspora, told reporters here.

He said he will favour the online voting method.

There are over 2.5 million Keralites abroad of which about 90 percent of them are in various Middle-East countries.

"In Kerala, there are numerous instances where bogus voting takes place ... The system of proxy voting may not reflect the real intention of a diaspora voter, so we feel that online voting could be the most practical solution for this," he said.

He also ruled out putting ballot boxes in the Indian embassies aboard.