Terming the Centre’s nod for `proxy’ voting rights for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) as a major step towards full democratic empowerment, Pravasi organisations have flagged concern over the likelihood of gross misuse of the proxy system.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday agreed to amend the electoral laws to let NRIs nominate persons to vote on their behalf in the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
For millions of Indians working abroad, particularly Keralites, the Cabinet decision, if implemented after getting Parliament approval, would be a major achievement.
“This is definitely a major step and we appreciate the decision,” Attakkoya Pallikkandy, chairman, Pravasi Coordination Committee, told The Hindu. “But this is short of our expectation of direct voting right — through e-voting.”
Biggest beneficiaries
Noting that there were over two million Keralites in the Gulf, Mr. Pallikkandy said the politically conscious Gulf Malayali community would be the biggest beneficiaries.
At the same time, he feared that the proxy voting would lead to gross electoral abuse, particularly in the traditionally small-margin Assembly constituencies such as Nadapuram, Perambra, Palakkad, and Varkala. The nomination system would help parties to `buy votes’ from the NRIs’ nominees, he said.
Kozhikode district president of the Kerala Pravasi Sangham Manjakkulam Narayanan said the nomination system would facilitate manipulations by dominant political parties. “It will be the nominees who will be getting the right to vote — in fact, an additional vote for them — on behalf of the NRIs,” he said. “This is a great beginning,” said Gulam Hussain Kolakkadan, chairman, Global Malayali. “But the government should take this to the next level — of allowing NRIs to vote online.” In this high-tech era, he said, online voting was quite easy.
“Mahe residents have for long been voting online in the French elections,” he said.
K.V. Shamsudheen, chairman, UAE-based Pravasi Bandhu Welfare Trust, wanted the government to make Aadhaar mandatory for all, including the NRIs, for voting. And, the NRIs should be allowed to do e-voting from their workplaces overseas using the Aadhaar number.
In his view, Keralites in the Gulf would be the largest Indian community that would be utilising the proposed proxy voting. In the last election, he recalled, when the government allowed NRIs to be included in the voters’ lists, some 11,000 had showed up for physical voting. In many other States, the voters numbered in the hundreds and in some there were not a single NRI voter.
The proxy vote, he feared, would encourage political parties to secure maximum possible nominations from the NRIs by influencing them through various dubious ways.