ABU DHABI // More than two million Indian expatriates living in the UAE are set to benefit from a ruling by the Supreme Court of India to enable absentee voting for Non Resident Indians (NRI) within the next eight weeks.
On Monday, the court directed India’s central government to allow NRIs to cast their vote from overseas without having to fly back to their hometown during elections.
Following the court’s decision, NDTV reported on its website on Monday that the government “has approved e-ballot voting for Indian passport holders abroad” and it “would have the process in place after amending laws”.
Previously NRIs were deprived of voting rights if they had been out of the country for more than six months.
This law was challenged by Dr Shamsheer Vayalil, an NRI based in Abu Dhabi. In April last year, Dr Vayalil, who is managing director of VPS Healthcare, which manages Lifeline Hospital in Abu Dhabi, petitioned the supreme court, who directed the Election Commission to explore the possibilities for NRIs to cast their votes.
The ruling was welcomed by expatriates living in the capital, as it would no longer mean them having to fork out on air tickets home.
“This is great news for us. Last year I travelled to India to vote spending thousands of dirhams,” said Tushar Patni, managing director of Ajanta Jewellery in Abu Dhabi.
“Above all, now we feel that we are complete Indians and not treated different due to living overseas for years.”
Muneer Pandiyala, 37, from Kerala, said: “We salute the decision of the supreme court, which overseas Indians waited for a long time.
“More than a million people from Kerala live in the UAE. So this decision will be very beneficial for us to take part in electoral process of the country and be a part of government formation.”
In absentee ballot voting, a blank postal ballot paper is emailed to the voter, who has to then fill it in and mail it by post to their constituency.
Allowing NRIs to vote abroad was likely to have a huge impact in states such as Kerala with government elections next year. An estimated four million Keralites currently live abroad, with over a million in the UAE alone.
T P Seetharam, India’s ambassador to the UAE, said although some details still needed to be ironed out, NRIs were indebted to Dr Vayalil’s endeavours.
“We will wait for more details from the government. There are certain laws that may have to be amended and technical details are to be worked out. So we will wait and see how it develops over next few weeks,” he said.
anwar@thenational.ae
