In these elections, just 196 Odia NRIs register to vote

This time around, a sizable portion of the Odia community who reside overseas may not cast a ballot. Since it is still not feasible for them to do so logistically.

Just 196 Odias who are foreign nationals have registered to vote in the state’s Lok Sabha and Assembly elections as overseas/NRI voters. Forty of them are female, and 156 of them are male. Over a million Odias live outside of India, according to the World Odisha Society (WOS), the biggest and most influential organization in the Odia diaspora globally. Additionally, 60% of this population is eligible to vote on average. According to official records from the chief electoral officer, voters who are foreign nationals or non-resident individuals did not cast ballots in the Odisha elections in 2014 or 2019.

An foreign voter is not granted an EPIC and may cast a ballot in person at the polls if they can show their original passport, according to Election Commission of India (ECI) norms. The largest obstacle for Odias residing overseas, according to diaspora members, is this.

One Sambalpur native living in Dubai, Sudhashree Das, said that the largest obstacle for Odias residing overseas is the custom of voting in person. The state’s electoral system’s lack of options for distant or international voting is the obstacle. Similar to several other states, Odisha lacks a system that enables foreign nationals to vote from overseas. Thus, we are unable to cast a ballot if we are not present in person within the designated voting time, the speaker said.

Madhumita Sahoo, a London-based Bhubaneswari voter, said that only a restricted number of individuals whose trips to Odisha fall within the voting window are eligible to cast ballots. Otherwise, it would be costly to return to your state merely to cast a ballot, she said. CEO representatives said that as the majority of Odias residing overseas had renounced their Indian citizenship, voting cannot be imposed upon them. A senior official said, “They can show their passports at polling booths to vote as per the existing provisions after enrolling.”

The Government of India did not make a decision on the ECI’s 2020 proposal to the Law Ministry to change the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 to allow qualified NRIs to cast postal votes.