There is, however, no provision for postal balloting. The notification prepared in consultation with the Election Commission clarifies that NRI voters now can submit the application directly to the electoral registration officer of the constituency within which the place of residence is mentioned in the passport. The application can either be submitted directly or sent by post.
This meets the longstanding demands of the NRIs and fulfills the promise made by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh at last year’s Pravasi Bharatiya Divas held in New Delhi. According to the Representation of the People Act, once a person is registered as a voter, he automatically gets a right to contest polls also. Now, if any NRI has a political ambition to be elected as peoples’s representative, he or she can fufill that aspiration also. As per the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2010, so far a person who has gone out of the country for business or employment should be treated as having moved out of that place. Mere ownership or possession of a building or other immovable property did not bestow on the owner, the residential qualification. The Amendment Act says, there are a large number of citizens of India residing outside India due to various reasons. The Act says the right to vote as demanded by the citizens of India living abroad is their legitimate right. Conferring such right will enable them to participate in the democratic process of elections in their motherland and will also boost their involvement in the nation building.