Daijiworld Media Network - SHS
(With inputs from TOI)

New Delhi, Mar 11: First in the history of world's largest elections, non-residential Indians will involve in the process of elections by franchising their votes.

According Times of India reports around 12,000 NRIs have enrolled their names through post for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. However on the polling day voters have to travel to their respective constituencies to cast the votes.

The Times of India, english language daily has published these details on Monday, March 10 Among NRI voters enrollment, 11,488 from Kerala registered their names signaling bulk migration pattern and political awareness among the Keralites. Meanwhile Tamil Nadu has shown less interest, with only 112 NRIs enrolling the name and Punjab stood close to latter state with registration anywhere around 138.

"Most of the Keralites migrate to Gulf countries. Alongside level of political awareness within the Kerala citizens is considerably more than in the other States in the country" said UAE based Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust chairman K V Shamsudheen to TOI

Following the amendment of The Representation of the People Bill in 2010, citizens of India living abroad were given a
chance to register as voters. As of May 2012, the ministry of overseas Indian affairs put the number of NRIs at more than a crore, and the overseas Indian community (which includes NRIs and people of Indian origin) at 2.5 crore.

According to the election commission's norm, an NRI is eligible to cast the vote if he/she does not hold the citizenship of any other country. And the constituency to franchise the vote for an NRI, will be the place of residence in India as denoted on the passport. The form to be filled and posted to the electoral registration officer of the constituency is available on the EC website. An NRI will get a letter or an SMS once his or her name is added to the rolls. Even though forms and photocopies of supporting document could be sent by post, it is necessarily must for an NRI to appear in person to cast the vote. Postal ballot, online voting or even polling in the local Indian missions are not an option On the other hand NRIs contend that one has to have procedures to franchise the vote through post, in Indian consulate or in Indian embassy.

"The government should allow us to vote in the Indian consulate or embassy or send our votes by post. It is not possible for 25 million NRIs to travel to their hometowns just to vote," said a spokesperson for NRI Voting Rights, a forum of NRIs in the US. "When we can register online, why not cast our votes online? The EC can introduce extra layers of checks and verification processes," said Shamsudheen. "The government can make use of the details such as fingerprints and iris scans that we have already given for Aadhar registration so that we can vote from the place where we are working, he said

Larger state seems to have less political conscious citizens compared To the smaller ones. Whooping 11,488 registration from Kerala also testify this fact.  At least 56 citizens from Puducherry who are living in France have enrolled themselves, while 27 voters from Goa are on the rolls. New Delhi and Maharashtra have 13 NRI voters each, while the rest of the states have just one each.

"The Election Commission has made it easy for NRIs to register as voters by explaining on its website the procedure to be followed. The manner of voting has to be decided by the government and it may take time," said an EC official.