Voting rights for expats under review

By A Staff Reporter 

Kathmandu, Oct. 31: The Election Commission (EC) is preparing to send its response to the Home Ministry regarding a draft ordinance that seeks to grant voting rights to Nepalis living abroad.

The government plans to introduce the ordinance to ensure that Nepali citizens residing overseas can participate in national elections. To this end, the Home Ministry has prepared amendments to several existing laws and forwarded them to the EC for feedback.

The EC received the proposed draft before Tihar, said EC’s Information Officer Suman Ghimire. 

According to EC Spokesperson Narayan Prasad Bhattarai, discussions are underway, and the Commission is expected to send its formal response to the ministry by Friday. 

He said that both the secretaries of the EC and the Home Ministry, who oversee legal matters, held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the draft.

When asked about the feasibility of granting voting rights to Nepalis staying abroad in a short time, Bhattarai said the Commission has been reviewing the issue since the 2022 general elections. 

According to him, the first phase of the process involves removing legal barriers, while the next phase will focus on logistical challenges, including expenses and the management of voting through Nepal’s diplomatic missions abroad.

Currently, Nepal’s election laws do not envision voting rights for citizens living outside the country.

To make such arrangements possible, the Ministry of Home Affairs had prepared a draft amendment proposal for this purpose, by amending four existing election-related laws. 

The proposed amendments include changes to the House of Representatives Election Act, Election Commission Act, Voter List Act, and Election Offences and Punishment Act, all aimed at creating a legal framework for enabling Nepalis abroad to cast their votes in future elections.

Once the EC will send the feedbacks, the proposed legal amendment will be submitted to the Council of Ministers. Since the House of Representatives has been dissolved, the government plans to make amendments to the laws through an ordinance. 

Even if the legal barrier to overseas voting is removed, the government and the EC must still determine whether to allow voting under the first-past-the-post, or proportional representation, or both systems. 

The government and the EC are currently working on arrangements to allow overseas Nepalis to vote only under the proportional representation system. 

Provisions for managing and counting the ballots cast from abroad will be defined through separate procedures. 

In coordination with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs, as well as the Election Commission, the government will decide in which countries voting arrangements will be made. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nepal currently has diplomatic missions in about 43 countries.

The list of countries where voting will be arranged will be published in the Nepal Gazette.

The EC has also recommended amending the Election Offences and Punishment Act to ensure that the secrecy of votes is not compromised while using information technology for overseas voting.