Fact Check: No, NRIs cannot vote online in 2019 Lok Sabha elections
A Facebook post claims that the Election Commission of India will allow NRIs to vote online during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be false.
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India Today Fact Check
The Election Commission of India has clarified that reports of online voting for NRIs are false and that they can vote only by physically appearing at their designated polling stations.
A Facebook post claims that the Election Commission of India will allow NRIs to vote online during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The viral post also contains a website link requesting people to register themselves to vote in the Lok Sabha polls.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim to be false.
The archived version of the post can be seen here.
A Facebook user "Sukant Sahu" shared the post, which uses a screenshot of the official website of the Election Commission. The caption with the post reads, "Hello all, those who hold Indian passport can now vote online for 2019 elections. Please register yourself on https://eci.gov.in. There is a link Enroll as NRI voter. Please spread the word in your different groups."
The URL in the post leads to the website of the Election Commission of India. The post was widely shared on Twitter as well. Twitter accounts of "RakshTheLuck" and "Chowkidar Live for narendramodi" also shared the post with the same claim.
AFWA ran a Google search to check whether the claim is indeed true and found that the official EC spokesperson Sheyphali Sharan published a series of tweets on February 21, 2019, from her verified account, clarifying that reports of online voting being allowed for NRIs were false.
It has come to our notice that the following FAKE NEWS is circulating on some WhatsApp groups.
It is clarified that you can only apply for voter registration online through https://t.co/oC8AwgyIdK portal pic.twitter.com/OTxjb1zFbA Sheyphali Sharan (@SpokespersonECI) February 21, 2019
The EC even posted a warning on its official website, saying that NRIs would need to fill up Form 6A to register as voters and will have to physically appear at their designated polling stations to cast their votes.
There are also several news reports of EC clarifying that overseas Indians are not allowed to vote online. To bust the fake news that has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp since February, the EC had sent a written complaint to Delhi police. boomlive.com also debunked the post as a fake one.
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