Poor electoral participation of overseas Indian voters in Lok Sabha polls, 2024: EC data

Overseas Indians have shown great interest in registering as voters, but only a few will exercise their influence in this year’s Lok Sabha elections. File | Photo Credit: ANI

Overseas Indians have shown great interest in registering as voters, about 1.2 lakh people have registered in the voters’ list, but only a few will exercise their power in this year’s Lok Sabha elections.

According to the data released by the Election Commission, an estimated 1,19,374 are registered as overseas voters by 2024, with Kerala witnessing the highest registration at 89,839. In 2019, there were an estimated 99,844 registered overseas voters.

Lok Sabha results and voting trends

Polling authorities said only 2,958 foreign voters flew down to India to take part in the world’s biggest democratic exercise. Of these, 2,670 were from Kerala alone.

Several large states like Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu did not see the result of overseas voters.

Gujarat, home of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saw only two out of 885 overseas voters cast their ballots in the Lok Sabha elections.

It was the same in Maharashtra, where only 17 out of 5,097 NRI voters cast their ballots.

Despite an increase in registered overseas voters of just over 19,500 since the 2019 general election, their participation in recent elections has been poor.

Although NRI voters is a generic term, the EC defines them as overseas voters – Indians who live abroad for various reasons and are eligible to vote in Lok Sabha, Assembly and other direct elections.

According to the existing election law, registered NRI voters have to come to their Lok Sabha constituencies and constituencies to vote. They must present their original passport as proof of identity.

The data shows that although there were 7,927 registered NRI voters in Andhra Pradesh, only 195 came down to vote.

According to the EC, while eligible citizens of India who register to vote are called voters, those who exercise their rights are defined as voters.

In Assam, none of the 19 registered voters cast their ballots. It was the same in Bihar where none of the 89 NRI candidates exercised their right.

Goa also saw a similar situation with none of its 84 voters casting their ballots.

In August 2018, the 16th Lok Sabha passed a bill to allow proxy voting rights to eligible overseas Indians. The bill, however, could not be brought in the Rajya Sabha.

In 2020, the EC proposed to the Union Law Ministry to extend the facility of Electronically Transmitted Postal Volot System (ETPBS), till now available only to service voters, to eligible overseas voters of India.

It will require changes in electoral laws. But the government has not yet addressed this issue.

The EC then told the government that it has been receiving many representations from the Indian diaspora to facilitate voting through postal ballots.

Voters cited travel costs, forced overseas employment, and education, among others, as reasons for not being able to vote in person, the EC said.