TRIVANDRUM, 6 December 2005 — India is readying a law to enfranchise its overseas work force, fulfilling a longstanding demand by Indian expatriates in the Gulf.
The Home Ministry has issued a note to the concerned departments seeking their opinion on the ordinance.
According to the reports the ordinance amending Section 20A of the Representation of the People Act would be promulgated later next month, after the winter session of Parliament, to enfranchise the overseas Indian citizens.
The note being circulated says the initiative follows a suggestion by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy that non-resident Indians should be included on electoral rolls and be allowed to vote if they are in India during elections.
It says disenfranchising those who go abroad for work, education or business amounts to negation of their rights as citizens and that is undemocratic as well. However, there will be no absentee voting or polling stations outside the country.
“There were objections from a section of our citizens in the Gulf that setting up polling stations there would divide the community deeply. It would also create problems for the local authorities since our presence there is huge,” Chandy said.
However, heat and dust of the elections are expected to reach the expatriates and an influx of home-bound vacationers is expected that time.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA), had recently assured the chief minister that NRIs would be allowed to vote in the assembly polls that are six months away.
