While the Central government is gearing up to amend the Representation of People Act to provide proxy voting right to Non-Resident Indians (NRIs), it will have to tackle a series of challenges in States with a relatively significant NRI population.
The debate on proxy voting for NRIs was set rolling yet again after a brief lull by Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj who said in Ahmedabad on Saturday that NRIs could cast their votes by issuing an authorisation letter to their kin.
Her statement at a BJP meeting assumes significance as it preludes a series of Assembly elections as well as the Lok Sabha elections in 2019.
Kerala was one State that made an earnest bid to ensure NRI participation in elections and the officials concerned had held preliminary discussions in this regard. Official party to the discussions for granting voting rights to NRIs either through proxy of e-voting had expressed serious reservations about introducing a system for ascertaining the genuineness of a proxy selected by an NRI.
The Election Commission of India would have to evolve a mechanism to ensure that he or she is voting as per the desire of the NRI. The Voter Verifiable Paper Trail would be insufficient to address such concerns. Having a foolproof verification system is not an easy task either.
The commission would have to define whether the proxy could be an immediate family member, wife, husband, ward or parent of the NRI. It would also have to fix the number of votes a proxy could cast in an election. The Centre might be planning to amend the Act to incorporate such provisions. At present, the Act permits a person to cast only one vote and that needs to be rectified.
Safeguards against impersonation need to be put in place. Kerala, Punjab, and Gujarat are the three States that have a major expatriate population and the experiment would have considerable impact on the election process in these States.
It would also have a great impact on the electoral fortunes of the Left Democratic Front and the United Democratic Front. All political parties have overseas socio-cultural organisations and the campaign would be extended to the Gulf and other countries too, once the decision comes into force.
