EC proposes extending postal ballot facility for eligible overseas Indians

New Delhi: The Election Commission has proposed to the government to extend the Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System (ETPBS) facility, so far available to service voters, to eligible overseas Indian voters.

In a letter to the legislative secretary in the law ministry on November 27, the Commission said with the successful execution of ETPBS in case of service voters, it is now "confident" that the facility can also be extended to the overseas electors.

"The Commission is technically and administratively ready to extend this facility in general elections to legislative assemblies of Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry," the poll panel said.

Elections in these state are due sometime in April-June next year.

It said the poll panel has been receiving several representations from Indian diaspora residing abroad to facilitate voting through postal ballots since such overseas electors are not in a position to be present in their polling area as travelling to India for this purpose is a costly affair and otherwise also, they cannot leave the country of their residence owing to specific compulsions of employment, education or other engagements.

"Due to protocols associated with COVID-19, problem further gets compounded," the letter to the law ministry said.

The Commission observed that Section 62 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 envisages right to vote for every citizen registered in the electoral roll who is not subject to disqualification for voting.

"Therefore, it is necessary to explore all avenues to enable exercise of a franchise by all eligible electors," it said.

As of now, overseas Indians are free to cast their votes in constituencies they are registered.

Unofficial data with the EC shows that only 10,000 to 12,000 overseas voters have exercised their franchise because they do not want to spend foreign currency to come to India and vote.

Under ETPBS, postal ballot is send electronically to a service voter. The service voter downloads it and uses a specific envelope to return it to the returning officer of his constituency.