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NRI Voting Rules: When Lok Sabha elections have been announced in India, the question arises whether Indian citizens living abroad can vote or not? So the answer is that all Indians above 18 years of age living abroad can vote in elections, provided they have not renounced Indian citizenship. Indian citizens settled in other countries did not have the right to vote in India till 2010, but now they have this right subject to the condition of coming to the polling station and voting.
Demand for remote voting by NRIs
However, NRIs have been demanding remote voting for a long time, so that they can cast their votes in elections in India from there. Many petitions have also been filed in the Supreme Court regarding this. On this matter, the Election Commission says that arrangements for remote voting will also be made soon.
Non-resident Indians have the right to vote
Before 2010, the rule was that if an Indian stayed out of the country for more than 6 months, his name was removed from the voter list. Then in 2010, the Student Representation Act was amended and NRIs got the right to vote. You have got the right to vote, but according to Section 20A of the RP Act, you will have to come to the polling station to cast your vote. That means NRIs can vote, but only after coming to the polling station. Due to this, most of the NRIs are deprived of voting.
In this way name can be added to the voter list
Indian citizens living abroad for study, employment or any other purpose can register their names in the voter list. Any NRI above 18 years of age can do so by downloading and filling Form 6A from the Election Commission website or the form can also be obtained free of cost from Indian embassies abroad.
But any NRI can get his name registered in the voter list only where he resides in India. For example, if an NRI resides in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, his name will be recorded in the voter list in that assembly.
After filling Form 6A, it can be sent by post to the concerned Electoral Registration Officer or can also be submitted online from the Election Commission website. The names and numbers of all the registration officers will also be available on the website itself.
Can you vote online?
Currently, there is no online voting facility for Indian citizens living abroad. At present, only employees on election duty, army personnel or government officials working abroad can vote electronically or by post. They are called service water. He cast his vote through Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System i.e. ETPBS.
More than 18 lakh people voted remotely in the 2019 elections.
According to the data, more than 18 lakh postal ballots were sent in the 2019 elections, out of which 10.84 lakh people filled them and sent them. That means more than 60 percent of the votes were cast through ETBPS. The Election Commission and the government are working on starting a similar facility for NRIs also. However, it has not started yet.
