What’s in the news?

• Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra urged Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to register as overseas electors and told them about a proposal on postal ballots for NRIs being contemplated during a recent visit to South Africa and Mauritius.
• During the interaction with members of the Indian community, the CEC urged them to register as overseas voters as the present numbers are abysmally low. He also shared with the members that extension of Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) facility to overseas voters is being contemplated.
• The EC had written to the Law Ministry in 2020 proposing NRIs be allowed to vote through postal ballots, following which the matter has been under consideration by the government.

How can overseas voters currently vote in Indian elections?

• 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.

What is the current strength of NRI voters?

• According to a UN report of 2015, India’s diaspora population is the largest in the world at 16 million people.
• As of now there are only 1.12 lakh registered overseas electors.

Government’s proposal

• 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).

What is ETPBS and how does it function?

• The Electronically transmitted Postal Ballot System is developed by Election Commission of India with the help of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), for the use of the Service Voters.
• It is a fully secured system, having two layers of security. Secrecy is maintained through the use of OTP and PIN and no duplication of casted Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot (ETPB) is possible due to the unique QR Code.
• The developed System is implemented inline with the existing Postal Ballot System. This system enables the entitled service voters to cast their vote using an electronically received postal ballot from anywhere outside their constituency. The voters who make such a choice will be entitled for the Postal Ballot delivered through Electronic Media for a particular election.
• 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 postal ballot must reach the returning officer by 8 a.m. on the day of the counting of results.
• This system would be an easier option of facilitating voting by the electors as the time constraint for dispatch of postal ballot has been addressed using this system.

• • The Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 was amended in 2016 to allow service voters to use the ETPBS.

• 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.

Are postal ballots a viable means of voting?

• 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.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/nris-in-south-africa-told-to-sign-up-as-overseas-electors-ec/article65344486.ece