CONSULATE GENERAL OF INDIA
ATLANTA
…
PRESS RELEASE
As the term of the 16th Lok Sabha is due to expire on 03 June 2019, the Election Commission of India has vide Press Note dated 10.03.2019 announced the schedule for holding General Elections to the 17th Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim in a free, fair and peaceful manner. The General Elections will commence on 11 April 2019.
All citizens who turned 18 years on 01 January 2019 and registered as electors will get opportunity to cast their vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and in the respective Vidhan Sabha elections of those States where it will be held. A person who is not a citizen of India is not eligible for registration as a voter in the electoral rolls in India.
Consequent on the announcement of the Schedule for the General Election, the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) for the guidance of Political Parties and Candidates has come into operation with immediate effect in entire India.
Overseas (NRI) elector can vote. An overseas elector is a citizen of India and who has not acquired citizenship of any other country and is otherwise eligible to be registered as a voter and who is absenting from his place of ordinary residence in India owing to his/her employment, education or otherwise is eligible to be registered as a voter in the constituency in which his place of residence in India as mentioned in his passport is located.
The overseas voter is required to file an application for the purpose in prescribed Form 6A, completed in all respects including attachments, before the Electoral Registration Officer/Assistant Electoral Officer of the constituency within which the place of ordinary residence of the applicant in India as given in his/her passport falls. Form 6A is available online at the website of Election Commission of India (www.eci.gov.in
) and can be downloaded.
Indian Passport will be required to be produced by the overseas voter at the Polling Station for identification purposes. ‘Passport’ means a passport issued by the Indian Government. It doesn’t mean necessarily the current passport, since in many cases the current passport may not contain details of the address in India mentioned in the original passport but may contain the address in foreign land. Accordingly, only that Indian Passport be produced by the overseas voter which has India address.
For more details including FAQs, contact details, procedure to lodge grievances etc. please visit www.eci.gov.in. For Overseas Electors, a special email ID [help.overseas.elector@eci.gov.in] and a WhatsApp business number 813078-1950 has been created.
It may be useful to visit the National Voters’ Service Portal (www.nsvp.in ). Also, an interesting video available on link https://we.tl/t-VgkaNwmNBE may be viewed.
Atlanta
March 18, 2019
