NRI voter count is 1

Somnath De,Officer on Special Duty (IT) at the CEO’s office,said that Dutta,47,applied to the electoral registration officer of Behala West Assembly constituency in the third week of March to enter his name in the voter list as an NRI.

Dutta is working in a private firm in Muscat since 2009. His local address was given as Becharam Chatterjee Street in Ward No 130 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

De said Dutta was the only NRI to enroll his name in the NRI voter list. After the application,it takes at least a week for the name to be enrolled in the list,and this has to be done before the last date of nomination for the concerned Assembly segment,said De. April 14 is the opening day for filing nomination in the sixth phase and April 21 the last day of nomination. So it will not be possible to include any other NRI in the voter list now,De said. Therefore,Dutta will be the only NRI to cast his vote this election.

De said that Dutta’s name was included without a photo. In the list,the passport number has been given instead of the EPIC number. Dutta can exercise his franchise by entering the booth with his passport.

The CEO’s office had expected more NRIs to come forward to vote. The CEO,West Bengal,had requested the ministry of external affairs to communicate the decision to foreign mission to inform NRIs about their right to vote.

“The CEO office also published advertisement. This time only one NRI can cast his vote. But gradually more NRIs will be able to avail themselves of this opportunity,” De said.

Some NRIs said they were unaware of the opportunity. Ananya Chatterjee,originally a resident of Rajarhat who lives in the Netherlands,said she did not know that NRIs could include their names in the voter list.