The Ministry for External Affairs has written a letter he Election Commission that it is in favor of allowing non-resident Indians (NRIs) to vote remotely through electronically-transmitted postal ballot system (ETPBS), reports Times of India.
On 27 November 2019, the EC had already made a proposal to make amendments to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 “at the earliest” which would have allowed hundreds of thousands of Indian diaspora to vote through postal ballots.
The EC, in its letter to the Law Secretary on 27 November, had made it very clear that it is “technically and administratively” ready to extend the facility in the coming elections to the legislative assemblies of West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala.
If this proposal is agreed upon, it will enable the NRIs to cast votes from their country of residence for state and general elections.
At present, NRIs do not have option to case there vote in the country of there recedence and have to be physically present in their respective constituencies in India to cast there vote which is personally costly for them.
This way hundreds of thousands of Indians who have so far been disfranchised due to a technicality and logisitics can now exercise their right to franchise expecially for those working in the Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait etc.
At present, the ETPBS facility is only available to those who serve in the armed forces and the para-military forces and government employees who are serving abroad in various missions.