Voting Rights to Overseas Electors  Voting Rights to Overseas Electors

Voting Rights to Overseas Electors

1. Election Commission of India has launched the online service for the citizens called the National Voters’ Service Portal (NVSP) to facilitate Indian citizens. NVSP portal shall also be of immense use to the Non-resident Indians as it provides online registration facility besides all other services related to electoral registration i.e. correcting entries or change in address, searching name on electoral roll, etc..NRIs are requested to visit the portal: www.nvsp.in to enroll themselves.

2.  Inder Section 20A of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, an Indian citizen who has not acquired citizenship of any foreign country and is living abroad on account of employment, education, etc. is entitled to be enrolled in the electoral roll of the constituency of his/her native place as per the address given in the Passport. For enrolment under this provision, an application has to be made in Form 6A. Guidelines and details in this regard can be seen on the home page of ECI's website under the head "Frequently Asked Questions", the direct link is  http://eci.nic.in/eci_main/nri/NRI_2122013.pdfFor voting, however, there is no special provision made in the existing law for overseas electors. They can only vote in person at the polling station provided for the electors of the locality within which the address in the Passport falls. Therefore, they have to be present in the country on the day of poll.