Kerala poll candidates woo NRKs

Published: Sun 3 Apr 2016, 12:00 AM

Last updated: Sun 3 Apr 2016, 8:52 AM

The system permitting Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to cast their votes in the elections in India from their overseas locations is still not in place, but this does not stop the political parties in Kerala from taking their campaign to the diaspora.
Candidates of various parties have started heading towards the Middle East, where about 90 per cent of Non-Resident Keralites (NRKs) reside, to canvass votes of not only those who have registered their names in the voters list but also their families members back home.
While three candidates of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), the second largest constituent of the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF), are currently canvassing votes in the Middle East, more from other parties are getting ready to fly.
Abdurahman Randathani, IUML candidate at Tanur in Malappuram district, who returned from a 3-day campaign in the Gulf, said the expatriates were highly enthusiastic about voting in the election. He said many had booked air tickets to be in the state on the polling day.
The NRIs in UAE had arrived for the last assembly and Lok Sabha polls by chartering flights. Randathani said he and his party were trying to bring maximum NRIs to the state on May 16, when the state goes to the polls.
The Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre, the expatriate wing of IUML in the Gulf countries, are organising various programmes for the candidates. T.V. Ibrahim, the party candidate at Kondotty, said he was flooded with invitations to attend various programmes organised by the KMCC.
Ibrahim, who is in the fray for the first time, will be leaving for Qatar next week. His colleague at Ernad P.K. Basheer is back after a hectic tour of UAE and Saudi Arabia.
Though NRIs have been very vocal about voting rights, they have not been enthusiastic in registering their names in the voters list. According to Election Commission sources, only 19,144 NRIs have registered till March 29, 2016. This marks an increase of 60 per cent over the voters registered during the Lok Sabha election in 2014.
This was 97% of the total NRI votes registered in the country as a whole. The number of voters registered for the assembly polls in 2011 was 8,820. Of this as many 4639 cast their votes in their respective constituency in the state.
Though the online registration will continue till the filing of nominations, the Election Commission sources are not expecting a huge increase as the NRIs will have send the print out of the registration form along with their passports and visa for inclusion of their names in the voters' list. The source said that the NRIs were not showing interest in registering their names now as the current rule stipulates their presence in the constituency for casting their votes.
Though a committee of the commission had recommended facility for proxy voting and electronic postal ballot facility for NRIs on the directions of the Supreme Court, the federal government has not made the required amendments in the Representation of People's Act so far to implement this.
The apex court had intervened in the matter after UAE-based medical professional V.P. Shamsheer, challenged Section 20(A) of the Representation of Peoples (Amendment) Act of 2010. He argued that the law that created an inequality between the different economic demographs of Indian citizens living abroad was violative of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution.
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