Petition for Absentee Voting in Indian Elections

To
The Minister of Parliamentary Affairs,
Government of India
New Delhi

The Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs
Government of India
New Delhi

Sub: Petition for Absentee Voting

Dear Sir/Madam

We, the undersigned, are concerned citizens of India who are living outside our primary residence. We represent a diverse group of non-resident Indians and people on the move for the purpose of employment/education/family within India. We write to urge the Government of India to address our collective concerns of our right to remain actively involved in the democratic process through electoral voting.

We strongly believe that every citizen of India above the legal age limit has the right to participate in democratic polity through voting, irrespective of where he/she physically lives and/or work. As any political event of any significance that happens in our country touches our lives and impacts us in myriad ways, it is imperative that citizens, regardless of their current residence, should be allowed to play a substantive role in the process.

Such participatory democracy can be achieved by allowing citizens to vote through absentee ballots. An 'absentee ballot' is a vote cast by someone who cannot, for reasons that are discussed later, vote in person at the polling station. Such a ballot can be cast by postal mail, proxy voting or through electronic means.

Currently, Section 19 of The Representation of the People Act-1950 (RPA-1950) allows a person to register to vote if he/she is above 18 years of age and is an ordinary resident of the residing constituency i.e. living at the current address for 6 months or longer. Section 20 of the above Act disqualifies a non-resident Indian (NRI) from getting his/her name registered in the electoral rolls. Consequently, it also prevents an NRI from casting his/her vote in elections to the Parliament and to the State Legislatures.

On a positive note, The Representation of the People (Amendment) 2006 Bill was introduced in the Parliament by Shri Hanraj Bharadwaj, Minister of Law and Justice during February 2006 with an objective to amend Section 20 of the RPA-1950 to enable NRIs to vote. Despite the report submitted by the Parliamentary Standing Committee two years ago, the Government has so far failed to act on the recommendations. The Bill was reintroduced in the 2008 budget session of the Parliament to the Lok Sabha. Sadly there was no action taken once again.

Although the lack of NRIs voting rights have been discussed in the parliament through the introduction of the amendment to RPA-1950, there has been almost no attention given to similar plights of people on the move within the country.

We strongly urge the Indian Government to act in Letter and Spirit on the recommendations of The Representation of the People (Amendment) 2006 Bill by adding the following clause:
"(1AA) A person absenting himself from his place of ordinary residence owing to his employment, education, or otherwise, outside India, whether temporarily or not, shall not, by reason thereof, cease to be ordinarily resident in India."

In addition we request to expand the scope of the definition of ordinary resident to include those who might have relocated temporarily, regardless of the existing 6 month clause, for employment/education/familial purposes:
"(1AB) A person absenting himself from his place of ordinary residence owing to his employment, education, or otherwise, within India temporarily, shall not, by reason thereof, cease to be ordinarily resident therein."

Finally, we also urge the Government of India to extend the option of casting votes in absentia to the following categories of people:
who are indisposed due to handicap, ill health and/or old age
who have temporarily moved and do not wish to change their primary residence
who are unable to cast their vote on election day due to unavoidable circumstances

All these above objectives are fundamental to an effective functioning of electoral democracy. It can only be achieved by effectively legislating and implementing the system of absentee ballots. Furthermore, such absentee ballot system would be invaluable to all political parties in their efforts to broaden their voter base. It is our collective contention that the Government of India should allow Indians of the aforementioned categories to vote in absentia by request though postal mail, proxy voting or through electronic means.

It is the strong belief of all of us who are living outside our primary residence, that if the proposed amendments to the Representation of the People Act, 1950, are not passed by Parliament before the expiry of the present term, we will again not be able to vote in the upcoming national and state elections. We urge your office to take up this matter so that the Bill can be introduced in the Parliament and passed in the coming budget session of the Parliament.

Concerned citizens of India

Jai Hind!