Enrollment of Overseas Electors |
Procedure of Registration and Attestation CHAPTER XI – ENROLMENT OF OVERSEAS ELECTORS Who is an overseas elector? – 1. Provisions for registration of overseas electors in electoral roll have been made in the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2010 (Annexure 11.1)– i. By the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2010, Section 20A, has been added after Section 20 in Representation of the People Act, 1950. This reads as follows: - 20A. (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, every citizen of India, -
Shall be entitled to have his name registered in the electoral roll in the constituency in which his place of residence in India as mentioned in his passport is located. (2) The time within which the name of persons referred to in subsection (1) shall be registered in the electoral roll and the manner and procedure for registering of a person in the electoral roll under sub-section (1) shall be such as may be prescribed. (3) Every person registered under this section shall, if otherwise eligible to exercise his franchise, be allowed to vote at an election in the constituency Manner and procedure of registration of overseas electors: 2. Manner and procedure of registration of overseas electors has been prescribed by the Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules, 2011, notified by the Ministry of Law and Justice, Legislative Department, Government of India vide notification No.F.No. H-7(18)/98. –Leg.II (Vol.IV) (Annexure 11.2). 3. (i) According to Rule 8A of Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 application for registration as Overseas Electors has to be made to ERO in Form 6A.
(ii) In order to facilitate the NRIs and improve their enrolment in the electoral rolls, Form 6A shall be distributed among the family members of overseas electors, residing in India, through the Booth Level Officer (BLO) in the area assigned to him/her. Since BLOs are acquainted with the area assigned to them, they may be asked to prepare a list of such households in their area in which member(s) of the family reside(s) abroad. The name of Assembly Constituency and the postal address of the ERO should be filled up in Form 6A by the BLO before its distribution. BLO may be advised to request the member of such households before giving Form 6A to send the same to the member of his/her family living abroad for sending it back to the ERO to the address already provided in Form. BLO may be kept abreast of the rules and regulations for the registration of overseas electors properly so that they can give suitable reply to the queries/doubts raised by any person at the time of distribution of Form 6A. 4. Procedure of ERO on receiving application in form 6A –
5. Procedure if personal hearing becomes necessary - If personal hearing is necessary in respect to any claim or objection to the inclusion of names in the rolls as overseas electors, the ERO shall designate an officer form the Indian Mission concerned to hear the parties and give a report. The Commission has asked the Ministry of External Affairs to designate one officer in each Indian Mission abroad. The names of such officers who can be so designated by the ERO shall be sent to the EROs through the CEO by the Commission in consultation with the Ministry of External Affairs. Inclusion of names of the overseas electors in the roll: 6. Name of Overseas electors is to be included in the relevant part of the assembly constituency in which the place of his residence in India as mentioned in his passport is located. A separate section named “Overseas Electors” shall be created those parts in which overseas electors are registered and names of overseas electors will be kept in this section. This will be the last section of the concerned part. Monitoring of Registration of overseas electors: 7. Registration of overseas electors will be an ongoing activity as part of continuous updation of electoral rolls.
Identification of overseas elector at the polling station: 8. The identification of overseas electors at the time of casting of votes at polling station shall be done only on the basis of their original Passports. For this purpose, they shall be required to bring their original Passport to the polling station. |
Embassy of India, Harare, Zimbabwe |