India’s diaspora may get online ballot

India’s elections authority has assured the country’s highest court to explore possibility of introducing online voting facility for its diaspora during the ongoing elections, a lawyer said Monday.
The assurance came before the bench of Justice K.S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Vikramajit Sen hearing a petition moved by a prominent NRI or nonresident Indian against the exclusion of a large section of citizens from elections in the world’s largest democracy.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) also informed the Supreme Court that it was planning to set up a panel to study absentee voting system.
“The ECI assured the court that the government and the lawmakers are totally in favor of allowing the diaspora to vote and Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh had made an assurance to parliament in this regard,” said Haris Beeran, one of the petitioner’s counsels.
The Gujarat state of Narendra Modi, the frontrunner for the premier, had introduced the e-voting system in the 2010 civic polls, allowing all citizens to vote from the comforts of their homes or abroad but the response was poor.
However, the petitioner says it would be a huge hit in politically-charged states like Kerala where every third house has a member working in the Gulf.
One of the groups working among them chartered a flight from Dubai both this time and during the 2011 assembly polls.
The ECI’s website says there are 11,844 enrollments so far and 11,448 of them are from Kerala whose diaspora population is estimated to be more than two million in the Gulf alone pumping billions rupees every year into its economy.
Punjab has 138 NRI voters followed by Tamil Nadu (112), Pondicherry (56), Goa (27), Delhi and Maharashtra (13 each), Gujarat (7), Madhya Pradesh (6) and West Bengal (5) while half of the states drew a blank.
“This is a historic day for us. We are just a step away from enjoying the right to exercise our franchise,” said Dubai-based Dr. Shamseer VP, a recipient of highest civilian honor for the diaspora, Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, who moved the court with the plea last month. “The court was wondering why it took so long to reach the court”.
As per the official data, 10,037,761 Indians live abroad and they are entitled to register online and vote only if they were present in their constituencies at the time of elections.
They were also allowed to register online and send their documents for verification by post to be able to vote here. But most of them abstain as they were not sure of voting due to the restrictions.