Indians urged to register with missions to vote

Expatriate Indians have been urged to register themselves with their respective diplomatic missions to participate in their country's elections.

This announcement is in accordance with the recently introduced voting rights law for non-resident citizens.

The Indian Parliament last month passed the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill 2010, which gives non-resident Indians (NRIs) the right to exercise their franchise if they are in their constituencies at the time of elections to the country's legislative bodies.

Though the government is yet to announce the plans for efficiently executing the provisions of the law, a senior minister has now urged the Indian passport-holders to start registering their details with the Indian embassies and consulates in their current places of residence.

Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs Vayalar Ravi on Monday said this would help verify the non-resident status of Indian expatriates when they want to enrol their names in the electoral list and cast their votes under the new law.

"There may be complaints and verifications will have to be done. So, it is better they register with their embassies or consulates so that when the (district) collector checks, the missions here can confirm (their identities)," Ravi told reporters at the Indian Consulate in Dubai.

He said the names of all Indian passport-holders could be enrolled in the electoral list, which will be scrutinised by the Election Commission and local authorities.

"Their names will be enrolled in their (constituencies) as per the passports. But, to avoid any problems in future, I suggest they register their details with their consulate or embassy as well.

"The missions here already have the provisions to do it online," said Ravi who was in the UAE to attend the Global Arab Business Meeting in Ras Al Khaimah.

Consul-General of India in Dubai Sanjay Verma said registering details with the mission has not been compulsory and only less than 5,000 Indians have done so with the consulate.

Indians residing in Dubai and Northern Emirates can log onto www.cgidubai.com to register their details.

The minister, meanwhile, reminded that the registration with the diplomatic missions alone will not give voting rights to Indian expatriates and they must make sure that their names are enrolled in the voters' list back home which usually is updated prior to general elections.

He said the execution of the law would be done by the Election Commission and ruled out the possibility of the government creating special constituencies exclusively for NRIs.

About 25 million Indians live abroad and nearly five million of them reside in Gulf countries.

A large number of Indian population in the GCC are unskilled and semi-skilled workers.

Ravi said the UAE and India work together to ensure worker's welfare and UAE Labour Minister Saqr Ghabosh Saeed Ghobash has been invited to visit India in November to finalise the amendments planned for the MoU on labour protection and welfare.

Welcoming the move by Kuwait to scrap the system of sponsoring foreign labour, Ravi hoped that other Gulf countries will follow suit since "sponsorship is one of the ways of exploiting workers".

Khaleejtimes.com,29 September 2010