Loud Thinking

Why not voting rights for the Pakistani expatriates when the Supreme Court has already given favourable verdict on this issue?

If expatriates can vote in India why not in Pakistan..? Indian EC proposes e-voting, proxy vote for NRI electorate to SC.

EC proposes e-voting, proxy vote for NRI electorate to SC

New Delhi: The Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) may be allowed to vote through proxies or the electronic voting machines.

The Election Commission has submitted its recommendation to the Supreme Court on a petition filed by an NRI Dr Shamsheer Vayalil.

One of the proposals to allow NRIs to vote is to send ballots through email, which can then be sent back by the NRI voters to the Election Commission.

The move could add over one crore voters to the eligible electorate.

Talking to CNN-IBN, the petitioner Dr Vayalil said “There was already an ordinance which had allowed NRIs to vote, but they had to register and had to come back to their polling stations to vote – and if you look at the bulk of the NRIs, they cannot afford to travel, or they only come once in many years.”

“We put some practical options to the SC, and the SC directed the EC to submit a report. Even the govt is favourable to the stand that NRIs should vote,” the NRI added.

Responding to EC’s proposal of e-voting and proxy vote the petitioner said that “These are the two fastest methods that could be implemented considering the fact that long term solutions would take time, the EC has taken a very practical, pragmatic approach to the whole situation and has come out with something that can be implemented in a very fast course of time.”