NRK voters in the Gulf: Who will win the Sharjah Cup this time?

KOZHIKODE: Non-Resident Keralites (NRKs) in the Gulf might be thousands of miles away from the poll battlegrounds back home but election fever has gripped them as always. NRK voters in the Gulf are set to come back home, with associations arranging special voters’ flights, and many expats are extending Eid and Vishu vacations to exercise their franchise.
The ripple effect of the heated poll campaigns in the state is being felt in the Gulf countries with many expat organisations holding constituency-level meetings and planning conventions for candidates back home.
Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC), the NRK arm of the Indian Union Muslim League, has arranged a special voters’ flight which would carry expatriates from UAE to Kerala on April 24. KMCC leader in UAE Anwar Naha said that the flight would take off from Ras Al Khaimah and would arrive in Calicut International Airport. Meanwhile, arrangements are also being made to book mass tickets for expat voters from Vadakara and Kozhikode as well as Kasaragod.

Already, UDF Vadakara candidate Shafi Parambil made a whirlwind tour of UAE and Qatar, taking a short break from his campaign, to seek votes from expatriates. He addressed expats at Sharjah and Doha and urged them to ask their families back home to vote for him. Interestingly, he had urged the expats that they schedule the visit of families from Kerala to the Gulf be with them during school holidays to a date after the elections.
Also campaigning for various political parties is picking up in the UAE with various organisations. “KMCC and INCAS, affiliated to the Congress, would be holding joint conventions to urge votes for candidates back home. The meetings would be attended by candidates through Zoom meetings. Though many expats might not be inthe voting list or cannot afford to come to Kerala to cast their votes, their words matter a lot,” said Naha. He said that though many families as usual had come to the Gulf during vacation, the number of families who have come to Kerala during elections are far greater.
CPM leader and former MLA K V Abdul Khader, who is also the leader of Kerala Pravasi Sanghom, the expat wing of CPM, said that expatriates wield significant clout in the elections. “A single expat in the Gulf can influence at least four votes back home as he is the earning member of the family and as such his word matters, even though he might not be able to come home to cast his vote. Expat groups affiliated to political parties,most of which are working as cultural organsthere, are active in mobilizing votes which expats can influence,” Khader said.
While the Kerala Migration Survey estimates around 2.1 million expatriates, according to list of electors published on April 4, the total number of overseas electors from the state stands at 89, 839.
The major reason for low NRI registration despite the country granting voting rights to NRIs in 2010 has been the provision in the amended Representation of People’s Act that they have to be physically present in the polling booths to cast their votes -it is beyond the means of majority of expats to come home to cast their votes.
Though the Union government had on November 1, 2022 told the Supreme Court that it was considering ways to facilitate NRIs cast their votes remotely while ensuring the integrity of electoral process, the government has not made any progress in this regard.
Later in 2023, the Union law minister had said that discussions were on regarding the proposal by ECI to facilitate electronically-transmitted postal ballot system for overseas electors. Though the government had introduced a bill to amend the Representation of Peoples Act to allow NRIs to vote by proxy in 2018, it got lapsed with the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha.
Expat organisations like KMCC, OICC, and many organisations like Shakthi Theatres, Abu Dhabi and Kala Kuwait affiliated to CPM have constituency-wise committees in the Gulf which are active in campaigns through social media.