Postal Ballots for NRIs

Recently, the Election Commission of India (ECI) wrote to the Law Ministry, proposing to extend the facility of postal ballots to overseas non-resident Indians (NRIs) for the Assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in 2021.
The ECI proposed amending the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, in order to allow this facility.

Prior to 2010, an Indian citizen who is an eligible voter and was residing abroad for more than six months owing to employment, education or otherwise, would not have been able to vote in elections. This was because the NRI’s name was deleted from electoral rolls if he or she stayed outside the country for more than six months at a stretch.
After the passing of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2010, eligible NRIs who had stayed abroad beyond six months have been enabled to vote, but only in person at the polling station where they have been enrolled as an overseas elector.
Yet, the provision of having to visit the polling booth in person has discouraged eligible voters from exercising their mandate. Only a very low proportion of eligible overseas residents actually registered or turned up to vote.

According to a UN report of 2015, India’s diaspora population is the largest in the world at 16 million people.
Registration of NRI voters, in comparison, has been very low: a little over 1 lakh overseas Indians registered as voters in India, according to the ECI.

In the winter session of Parliament in 2017, the government proposed to remove the restriction imposed by Section 20A of the Representation of the People Act, which required them to be physically present to vote in their constituencies.
The Bill provided for overseas voters to be able to appoint a proxy to cast their votes on their behalf, subject to conditions laid down in the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961. The Bill was later passed in 2018, but lapsed with the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.
Now the ECI has approached the government to permit NRIs to vote via postal ballots similar to a system that is already used by service voters (the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System, or ETPBS).

- The Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 was amended in 2016 to allow service voters to use the ETPBS.
- Under this system, postal ballots are sent electronically to registered service voters. The service voter can then download the ETPB, register their mandate on the ballot and send it to the returning officer of the constituency via ordinary mail. The post will include an attested declaration form (after being signed by the voter in the presence of an appointed senior officer who will attest it). The postal ballot must reach the returning officer by 8 a.m. on the day of the counting of results.

This facility is now available for service voters (being a member of the armed Forces of the Union; or a member of a force to which provisions of the Army Act, 1950; a member of an Armed Police Force of a State, and serving outside that State; or a person who is employed under the Government of India, in a post outside India) and the ECI now proposes to extend this facility to overseas voters as well. For this to commence, the Law Ministry has to amend the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.

The ETPBS method allowed for greater turnout among service voters in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
With increasing mobility of citizens across countries for reasons related to work, the postal ballot method has been recognised by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (an intergovernmental organisation that works to support democratic processes and institutions) as a means to allow overseas voters to exercise their right, subject to certain conditions normally related to the time spent abroad or the work carried out abroad.
Postal ballots were proven to be a secure and an easy way of registering the mandate in the presidential elections in the United States recently with many voters preferring to use this method due to the COVID-19 social distancing norms.
A postal ballot mechanism that allows for proper authentication of the ballot at designated consular/embassy offices and an effective postal system should ease this process for NRIs, but the rules must be clearly framed for eligibility on the basis of time spent away from the country.

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