Voting through Electronic Postal Ballot for short term NRIs: A need?
The right to vote in a public election is a big responsibility of a citizen, and the future of the state or country depends on it. The residents can enjoy this right in elections, but a problem occurs for short-time NRIs seeking jobs.?
India holds the largest diaspora in the world, with roughly 1.3 crore people living outside the country. It exacerbates the problem of an already low vote count in elections. It becomes highly unrealistic for lower-middle and middle-class NRIs to return just for the vote. Therefore, a consistent drop in the number of NRIs participating in the voting is visible.
To solve this issue, the Election Commission of India (ECI), in 2014, came up with a bill allowing short-term NRIs to vote through an electoral postal ballot, which only working service staff could use, but the bill did not pass.
Some countries across the globe give this facility to their citizens, but none has the volume that India has. It becomes problematic for the ECI to regulate the data of that many NRIs and can lead to miscalculation, which is the biggest threat in elections.?
The government and the ECI should form a bill after considering all the pros and cons. Every vote is crucial, and voting through an electoral postal ballot can serve the cause of a government chosen by all, which is the backbone of India.
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