Time has come for postal voting for NRIs: CEC

Why in news?

While addressing a group of trainee Indian Foreign Service officers,Chief Election Commissioner said the time had come for the Election Commission to facilitate postal voting for Non-Resident Indians.
The EC’s proposal for introducing Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballots is currently pending with the government.

What’s in today’s article?

What is the current process of voting by NRIs/overseas Indian voters?

Currently, Election Commission of India (ECI) allows NRIs to register as overseas electors as long as they have not acquired the citizenship of another country.
An NRI can vote in the constituency in which his/her place of residence, as mentioned in the passport, is located.
He/she can only vote in person and will have to produce the passport in original at the polling station for establishing identity.
- Voting rights for NRIs were introduced only in 2011, through an amendment to the Representation of the People Act 1950.
As per the government, total number of overseas voters on January 1, 2023 stood at over 1.15 lakh.
- In Lok Sabha elections of 2019, roughly 25,000 of them flew to India to vote.

Origin of the idea of postal ballot

A 12-member committee was set up after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections to study mainly three options — voting by post, voting at an Indian mission abroad and online voting.
- The committee ruled out online polling as it felt this could compromise “secrecy of voting”.
- It also shot down the proposal to vote at Indian missions abroad as they do not have adequate resources.
In 2015, the panel recommended that NRIs should be given the additional alternative options of e-postal ballot and proxy voting.
The EC, in 2020, had written to the Law Ministry proposing NRIs be allowed to vote through postal ballots.
- Following this, the matter has been under consideration by the government.

What has been proposed by the EC?

To extend voting facility for NRI electors, EC had proposed the extension of Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) facility to these voters.
- ETPBS enables the voters to cast their vote on an electronically received postal ballot from their preferred location.
- ETPBS facility is so far available only to service voters, including
  - members of the armed forces and central armed police forces posted outside their home constituencies and
  - members of Indian embassies and diplomatic missions.
  - Voters on election duty
  - Voter above 80 years of age or person with disabilities (PwD)
  - Voter who are under preventive detention
  - Media persons (Journalist)
According to the EC proposal, any NRI interested in voting through the postal ballot in an election will have to inform the Returning Officer (RO).
RO should be informed in a time period not later than five days after the notification of the election.
On receiving such information, the RO will dispatch the ballot paper electronically.
The NRI voters will download the ballot paper, mark their preference on the printout and send it back.
This ballot is to be sent back along with a declaration attested by an officer appointed by the consular representative of India in the country where the NRI is resident.

News Summary:

Key highlights of the Speech of CEC

CEC said that time has come when the fifth largest economy of the world invokes technology driven methodology to facilitate its over 1.34 crore overseas Indians to participate in elections by ETPBS.
The CEC spoke to the trainees about the challenges being faced by election management bodies across the world.
This includes the rising threat from fake news and deep fakes on social media, derailing the election narratives.
India’s elections were often regarded as the largest peace-time mobilisation, with over 1 crore polling officials being deployed.
Linked to India’s impressive economic growth trajectory, the credibility of its electoral domain effectively counters the non-democratic discourse that the electoral process hinders growth