Soon NRIs Would Be Able To Vote By Proxy As Modi Government Plans To Introduce Bill In Parliament

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet, is expected to take a call on introducing a fresh bill in the parliament to extend the facility of proxy voting to the overseas Indians, reports The Economic Times.

The said bill proposes that overseas Indians, who are entitled to vote in India, can appoint a proxy voter in India to cast a vote on their behalf. A bill along similar lines had lapsed following the dissolution of the sixteenth Lok Sabha.

As per the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), there exist over 3.1 crore NRIs living across different nations in the world. The bill emphasises that the necessary provision of coming to India to cast ballot causes hardship for the overseas voters.

It should be noted that an expert committee of the Election Commission had in 2015 forwarded the legal framework to the Law Ministry to amend the electoral laws to allow overseas voters to use proxy voting.