Ruckus, Sitaram Yechury on EC proposal for overseas Indian voters – can be sold for profit

The Election Commission has proposed to the government that the Electronic Postal Voting System (ETPBS) facility should be provided to eligible foreign Indian voters. Comments are now coming on this. The Election Commission’s proposal to provide postal ballot facility to foreign voters could lead to large-scale manipulation, Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury told Hindustan Times on Tuesday. My advice to the election agency is to set up a polling station for this mission abroad. Still many countries are doing it.

“Many Indians, especially in the Gulf countries, are taken by managers to confiscate their passports,” he continued. “People who work there are under a lot of pressure, so they can easily sell their postal ballots for profit.” Explain that military postal system (postal ballot) facility is still available to military personnel.

In fact, the Commission said in a letter to the Legislative Secretary of the Ministry of Law on November 27 that, after the successful implementation of the ETPBS in the case of military voters, the facility can be extended to migrant voters overseas. The commission said it was prepared to provide this facility technically and administratively in the assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. Assembly elections in these states will be held between April and June next year.

What is special is that the Election Commission is receiving a large number of requests from Indian immigrants living abroad to facilitate voting by postal ballot as they cannot come to their polling place in India to vote. One, it will cost a lot and they cannot leave that country because of their jobs, education or other engagements.

In a letter to the law ministry, it said the problem was more complicated because of the protocol for Kovid-19. So all potential voters need to look for alternatives to give the franchise a chance. Indians currently living abroad are free to vote in constituencies registered as voters. Ballots are sent to military personnel electronically in the ETPBS system. They download it and send it to the electoral officer of their constituency in a special envelope. The rule is that the ballot must reach the election officer at eight o’clock in the morning on the day of counting.

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