Election Commission mulls postal ballots for NRI voters as Kerala braces up for SIR

The Election Commission will have a meeting with representatives of all political parties on September 20.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Election Commission of India is actively considering the introduction of postal ballots for overseas Indians. 

There has been a long-pending demand of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) to get voting facility. 

Kerala chief electoral officer Rathan U Kelkar told DH that discussions on introducing postal voting facility  for overseas Indians were progressing. The ECI may even introduce it before the 2026 Kerala Assembly elections.

Kerala chief electoral officer Rathan U Kelkar.

"Though e-voting was considered there were apprehensions over the cyber security aspects. The chances of allegations are also there, like in the case of EVMs. Hence the ECI is now going ahead with discussions on postal ballots as already postal ballots are used for officials to cast their votes, " said Kelkar. 

Major chunk of the NRIs who registered for voting in the previous elections were from Kerala. While the total NRI population comes to around 1,35 crore, during the 2024 Lok Sabha election only 1,19,374 overseas electors had registered for voting. Of that 89,839 were Keralites.

However, only 2,958 NRIs came down and casted votes, which included 2,670 Keralites. Travel cost and inconvenience were generally cited by NRIs as reasons for low turnout.

Kelkar said that even as e-voting was considered, it would require a very foolproof system. Hence the discussions are now focussed on introducing postal voting through the Indian embassies in foreign countries. 

Kelkar was talking on the sidelines of a workshop on 'Ensuring inclusive electoral participation for all'  in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday as part of the Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation programme. 

NRIs are welcoming the move to introduce postal votes. "Postal ballots for NRIs is indeed a welcome step, as it would finally give millions of overseas Indians a fair opportunity to participate in our democracy. However, the system must be implemented with utmost transparency and safeguards against malpractice," said AICC's Overseas Congress cell Middle East convenor Mansoor Palloor.

Stage set for SIR; Meeting with parties on Sept 20

The Kerala chief electoral officer also said that the election wing is all set to commence the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) and a meeting with representatives of all political parties will be held on Sept 20.

"At the time SIR was announced in Bihar itself Kerala as well as other states too started preparations. The electoral roll after the SIR in 2002 is already made available on our website and training was given to officials on conducting SIR.  In order to clear the apprehensions, a meeting of representatives of all political parties will be held on September 20.  We will be able to kick off the SIR as soon as the ECI's instruction comes. The state's preparedness was presented at the meeting convened by the ECI on Wednesday," he said.

Kelkar also said that no valid voters, including NRIs, need not have any concerns as the aim would be to ensure that no eligible voters would be missed out.

In order to bring in more accountability to the booth level data collection, government officials in group-c level posts are being appointed as booth level officers as far as possible. Physical and electronic verification of data would be carried out, he added.