• Home
• /
• World

Kerala moots law to allow voting for NRKs in local body polls

The Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government has initiated an amendment in the Panchayati Raj Act to facilitate non-resident Keralites to vote in the local body elections to be held next year.

The bill introduced by non-resident Keralites Affairs (Norka) Minister K C Joseph in the Assembly on Friday has been referred to the subject committee after preliminary discussions.

The bill seeks to incorporate an amendment in Section 21 of the Act to enable the NRKs to enrol their names in the voters list.

The amendment is in tune with the federal government decision to grant voting rights for NRIs in Parliament and Assembly polls.

Following the decision, the State Election Commission, which controls elections to the local bodies, had written to the state government to make provisions in the Act for the purpose. According to the bill, the NRKs will have to enrol their names in the voters list in the constituency mentioned in their passports. The bill does not provide for online voting. The registered voters will have to appear in person to cast their vote.

However, the NRKs may be able to vote in the local body polls from foreign locations if the Election Commission of India takes a final decision on introducing online voting. The commission had agreed to set up a committee to explore the possibility in response to a direction from the Supreme Court during the course of the Lok Sabha elections.

The panel had pointed out lack of provision in the People’s Representation Act for allowing online voting to the expats. The government had not considered this while amending the Act for granting voting rights to the non-resident Indians.

The State Election Commission (SEC) had considered the possibility of introducing online voting for the local body polls a couple of years ago. The panel had held discussions with a Barcelona-based company in this regard.

Though the company had agreed to make online voting possible by 2015 polls, the commission did not carry forward the plan.

The NRKs are very keen to use their voting rights. About 97 per cent of the NRIs, who have enrolled their names in the voters list in the country, are Keralites, who work mostly in the Gulf countries.

Many NRKs from the Gulf had come specially for voting in the Lok Sabha polls.

A group from Dubai had even chartered a flight for the purpose. About 90 per cent of the nearly 1.7 million Keralites working abroad are residing in the Middle East.