The 'external' vote.

VOTING by expatriate Pakistanis has been a hot topic of discussion in parliament, judiciary and the media. There is no disagreement on voting by our diaspora. Their right to vote is provided by law. Although the recent amendment of the election law was returned by the president to parliament for review, overseas Pakistanis' right to vote was never in question.

A joint parliamentary session subsequently adopted the amendment bill. Earlier, while hearing a petition challenging this, the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court said amendments to the 2017 Election Act did not deprive expat Pakistanis of the vote. The petition was withdrawn.

The key questions in this regard are who is eligible to vote, how should the ballot be cast and what should be the time frame for implementation. A well-researched article published in Dawn's magazine of Feb 27 examines the likely political impact of overseas voting and reaches the striking conclusion that it would be a 'game changer' that could even determine the outcome of general elections.

Over 120 countries and territories today allow what is called external voting. But there are vast differences in the way this is implemented, how votes are cast and criteria for those entitled to vote, including length of stay away from their country of origin. Some countries use citizens' intent to return to their home country as eligibility for them to vote.

Read more: Overseas voting

Few countries, however, have introduced electronic means for external voting. In South Asia, India allows NRIs to vote but only those who retain the country's passport, are not citizens of another country, and physically present on polling day in their respective constituency. Registration of overseas Indians remains low and only 25,000 are estimated to have travelled back to vote in the last general election. Remote voting by postal ballot is now under consideration. Bangladesh and Nepal are still working on arrangements for voting by their diasporas. Sri Lankan expats abroad don't have voting rights yet.

Political consensus is essential for the legitimacy of the system that is eventually adopted.

The Election Commission of Pakistan was charged by the 2017 Act with enabling overseas Pakistanis to vote. Those entitled to vote are holders of a NICOP card (national identity card for overseas Pakistanis) even if they are dual nationals. Some argue that voting rights should be confined to those who haven't acquired citizenship of other...

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