According to a Facebook post, the Election Commission of India will allow NRIs to vote online during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has confirmed that the claim is totally false. A Facebook user by the name of “Sukant Sahu” had shared the post. He had also put a screenshot of the official website of the Election Commission. The caption read, “Hello all, those who hold Indian passport can now vote online for 2019 elections. Please register yourself on https://eci.gov.in. There is a link Enroll as NRI voter. Please spread the word in your different groups.”
The link in the post led to the website of the Election Commission of India. This post was tweeted as well. AFWA ran a Google search to check the truth of the claim and found that the official EC spokesperson Sheyphali Sharan published a series of tweets on February 21, 2019, from her verified account, clarifying that reports of online voting being allowed for NRIs were false.
The Election Commission on Thursday said that NRI voters do not have any extended rights to cast their votes via the online mode in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled this summer. The Commission spokesperson confirmed that there is no facility as of now for any NRI to cast their votes online and “If it happens, it needs amendment to the Representation of the People Act. No such amendment has taken place,” the spokesperson said.
For now all Indians residing overseas have to first register as an Indian voter. Then need to physically come to India, specifically come to their own constituency with their original passport that was issued to them when they had gone abroad. Once all of these conditions are met can they cast their vote.
According the Ministry of External Affairs, there are approximately 3.10 crore NRIs living in different parts of the globe. A committee of the Election Commission had said no to e-voting for NRIs but approved of proxy voting. There was a bill to extend proxy voting rights to the NRIs and it was passed in the Lok Sabha. The bill could not be passed as it is pending in the Rajya Sabha. Once the Lok Sabha dissolves post the upcoming elections, the bill will lapse.
