The Election Commission of India (ECI) is actively looking into making postal ballots a reality for NRIs.

Chief Electoral Officer, Kerala, Rathan U. Kelkar said that his office was keen on having this done before the 2026 Assembly elections in the State.

Overseas electors would benefit hugely if the ECI considered facilitating this as the number of NRI electors from Kerala was one of the largest in the country. Of 1.2 lakh overseas electors in India, 89,839 were from Kerala during Lok Sabha polls 2024.

The introduction of postal ballots would therefore enhance the voting experience of this expatriate community from Kerala.

Kelkar said the activation of such a facility would involve the distribution of postal ballots to electors by the Indian embassies overseas.

Currently, NRI voters can only exercise their franchise at the polling centres in their respective localities by producing their passports. The postal ballot system would also be more or less the same except for the ballots being transmitted electronically to the voters, and the marked ballots returned by post. – editor@nrifocus.com