India is keen to enable its citizens living abroad to vote in elections and is working towards making it a reality.
At a gathering of the Indian Professionals Forum (IPF) at the Indian High Commission in London, Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said they were working towards bringing in measures that would allow Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to participate in elections.
Speaking on ‘Decoding Indian General Election 2019’, Mr Chandra urged NRIs to register online to vote till India brings in the bill that allows NRIs to vote through proxy or vote through embassies and mission.
"I would call on NRIs to get themselves registered as a voter online. They are Indian and have a right to participate in the Indian democracy. It is very much a focus for us because their voice must be heard as it is their constitutional right to participate in the elections," Mr Chandra told the gathering.
Mr Chandra reportedly also indicated that besides proxy voting, the Election Commission was also looking at the option of using the electronic voting technique currently in use by diplomatic staff worldwide.
"We are searching for options; the proxy voting bill had been cleared by the Lok Sabha but lapsed in the Rajya Sabha. But we want they should be able to vote. We want to be ahead of each and every country in the world,” said Mr Chandra.
Currently, NRIs can register online to vote but have to be physically present in their constituency in India to cast their ballots.
Many of the registered voters though miss out on exercising their franchise to vote as they do not want to spend to travel to India to vote.
The Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2017 was passed by the Lower House of the Parliament (Lok Sabha) in August 2018 but lapsed in the Upper House (Rajya Sabha) following the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.
According to estimates of the Ministry of External Affairs, there are about 31 million NRIs living in different countries across the world.
