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The Central Government, in consultation with the Election Commission, prepared and published the Registration of Electors (Amendment) Rules, 2011 on 3rd February,2011 so as to enable the Registration Officers to enrol the eligible overseas electors in the electoral rolls. The Government has also published a new Form 6A for enabling the overseas electors to make the application for inclusion of their names in the electoral rolls.

The aforesaid rules will be brought into force from the date on which the said Act shall come into force. As soon as the necessary administrative preparedness is achieved, the aforesaid Amendment Act as well as the Rules will be brought into force.

At present, the citizens of India who are not ordinarily resident in India are not entitled to get their names registered as voters in the Assembly/Parliamentary constituency. The Representation of the People (Amendment) Act, 2010 (36 of 2010) which seeks to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1950 was therefore, enacted and published in the Gazette of India on the 22nd September, 2010 for conferring voting rights to citizens of India who are absenting from their place of ordinary residence in India owing to their employment, education or otherwise outside India (whether temporarily or not). They shall be entitled to have their names registered in the electoral roll in the Assembly/Parliamentary constituency in which their place of residence in India as mentioned in their passport is located.

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(Release ID :69581)