While the Supreme Court of India as well as the Election Commission seem proactive and sympathetic towards the basic idea of allowing non-resident Indians (NRIs) to vote from abroad, there are other ensuing matters that could complicate any move in this direction.
Based on a petition filed by a Gulf-based NRI, India’s apex court had directed the Election Commission to explore the possibilities of overseas Indians voting in absentia in Indian elections. The EC panel constituted to study the issue has now come out with a report that suggests proxy or e-ballot as the most feasible options. The report has ruled out Internet or online voting and also turned down the idea of voting at Indian missions.
The e-ballot system would involve electronically transferring the ballot paper to the voter abroad and then the voter sending back the marked printout through post. In the EC’s view this system has almost no risk of manipulation, rigging or violation of secrecy.
Proxy voting — the facility of voting through an appointed person from the same constituency as the voter — is currently available to service voters belonging to the armed forces and paramilitary forces. Now, while the BJP is in favour of proxy voting, the Congress, CPI and BSP have opposed it on the ground that the proxy voter may not vote as per the wishes of the actual voter. Further, this system suffers from an inherent problem of “trust deficiency” and violates the principle of “secrecy of voting”.
Experts see the EC going the BJP way, i.e., opting for proxy voting over the e-ballots. According to the EC this would be “operationally the most simple and viable option”. On the issue of “trust”, the EC said, “It is expected that a person will appoint a proxy only when there is trust in the proxy.”
If it comes into practice, the system would be initially tried in some constituencies in state assembly elections and then scaled up to more segments and finally Parliamentary elections.
To make the measure truly effective, though, some diplomatic initiatives would have to be taken. In some countries, for example, the employers take possession of the expat workers’ passports and this could prove a hurdle in their being able to vote. The concerned authorities in these countries would have to be moved to facilitate voting by the Indian expats, particularly those working as cooks, drivers and domestic helps. This might take some doing.
There is also another view that allowing only the 10 million overseas Indians (as per MOIA records of May, 2012) to vote in absentia would be unfair to the four billion or so resident Indians who have moved out of their hometowns for work or business. In principle, their demand to be treated at par with non-residents seems quite justified, but it would be interesting to see how the courts view it in case the matter is raised.
Also, there are hundreds of thousands of resident Indians who work as election staff in addition to policemen who are also denied the right to vote owing to being on duty. The Election Commission as well as the courts might be forced to take a view on their situation if the right is given exclusive to non-resident passport holders.
What is clear, though, is that any such move would require an amendment in the existing laws, even if it is initiated through a court directive. The amendment will have to be made to expand the special category voters.
At present only defence personnel, central government staff and staff at the diplomatic missions abroad come under special category of voters.The EC officials have said time and again that just the commission being amenable to the idea would not help.
To enforce the change the Indian Parliament would have to sit and amend the Representation of People Act. One good thing here for the NRI cause is that the BJP supports their demand for obvious reasons and the party has the numbers to do it in the Lok Sabha. Overseas wing of the BJP in the US has already submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi a wish list that includes granting voting rights to NRIs. Whether or not this could become possible before the 2016 assembly elections, remains to be seen.
The Peninsula
