Govt. issues notification for NRI voting rights

• Parliament had in the monsoon session passed the Representation of People (Amendment) Bill, 2010 to allow NRIs to vote in Indian elections and now government has issued a gazette notification in this regard.
• An estimated 11 million NRIs are living in various countries across the world.
• However, the person will be able to exercise the franchise only if he or she is present in the constituency on the polling day.
• Election Commission is likely to soon finalise the rules and regulations prescribing modalities for entry of names of NRIs in electoral rolls.
• As per the existing rules, an NRI's name gets deleted from the voters' list if he or she stays outside the country for more than six months at a stretch.
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, addressing the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas earlier this year, had indicated that Indian passport holders living abroad could get voting rights by the time of next Lok Sabha elections in 2014.