The Election Commission has reportedly decided to accept a draft proposal by the law ministry for framing rules allowing nonresident Indians to vote in elections back home.

The External Affairs Ministry had earlier expressed inability to facilitate enrollment at the diplomatic missions abroad citing staff shortage to carry out such a huge task as there are some 11 million NRIs living abroad and Saudi Arabia alone has an NRI population of 2.5 million.

The Law Ministry then proposed that the expatriates may be allowed to send their applications to the concerned authorities in their constituencies along with copies of their passports and visas.

The official can make physical verification while voting. NRIs will be allowed to vote only when they are present in their constituency and there will be no facility for absentee ballot. Once the rules are framed, the NRIs will be able to run in elections. Earlier, only those who were present in the country at least for six months were allowed to enroll in the electoral roll and contest.

Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Puducherry are going to polls to elect the provincial assemblies and the electoral rolls aware to be finalized by the end of this month.

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and junior Foreign Minister E. Ahamed, who belong to Kerala, are keen to see that the NRIs are voting this time, given the huge impact that it could have on the outcome of polls in Kerala which has the highest share of NRIs.