Migrant workers also should have voting rights

Lionel Wijesiri

Ten years ago, a NGO started the campaign to extend voting rights to our migrant workers as a means to improve their leverage to influence policy making. The campaign initially gained the support of different political parties and government agencies and after a few years became inactive.

The globalization of life and an increase in migration for many different reasons have contributed to increasing interest in voting rights for people who are temporarily or permanently absent from their own country.

While the constitutions of many countries guarantee the right to vote for all citizens, in reality voters who are outside their home country when elections take place are often disenfranchised because of a lack of procedures enabling them to exercise that right. Sri Lanka, which has over 1.7 million Sri Lankans who are presently working abroad, is no exception.

The external voting is not always easy to design and go through. The implementation must be done with absolute care. In some cases external voting has been abolished after a while or the concept is subject to further debate. In Botswana, for example, discussions have been taking place as to whether the practise of external voting should be kept or not due to the high cost associated with the voter turnout.

This in turn raises the question whether external voting can be justified if the cost per external voter is substantially higher than the cost per voter residing and voting inside a given country. That is why we need a team of experts who can offer us advice on covering the key political, legal, and operational components of external voting programs.

Challenges

The analysts specialising in external voting say that there are three fundamental challenges to overcome. First, identifying the migrant workers would be a tedious task. In contrast to mechanisms that may be designed for a certain type of residents abroad (e.g. only those carrying out official duties, students or refugees), there is unlikely to be strong support from any host country for assisting to distinguish migrant workers from other kinds of potential voters.

The second challenge is that international migration for work is often a large-scale phenomenon that exhibits diverse geographical distribution patterns. It involves thousands of persons distributed across one or several countries of destination but also within most of them.

This means that it will be a costly affair for registering them and conducting the voting, as well as running electoral information campaigns.

The third challenge lies in making the electoral regulations and procedures more flexible in order to genuinely include migrant workers.

On this subject, it is important to keep in mind that the regulation and control of campaign activities and the administration of electoral justice are usually very sensitive topics in most of the countries.

In spite of all these difficulties, however, external voting is now on the political agenda in many countries.

Universal external voting is regarded by many as part of the citizen’s rights in a world where living or staying abroad forms part of the life of millions of people. The number of countries with external voting provisions has increased in recent years. Currently some 115 countries allow voting from abroad. More and more countries are considering the possibility of introducing external voting as a right for voters residing temporarily or permanently abroad.

Restrictions

Yet, there are some restrictions on the entitlement to vote externally that certain countries apply. Restrictions are normally related to the time spent abroad or the activity carried out abroad. For practical reasons, a country may limit the availability of external voting to citizens living or staying in specified countries only. Some countries make the option of external voting available only when a minimum number of external electors are registered in a host country.

Entitlement to vote from abroad is sometimes restricted to a specific type of election or, as another example, to voters who are assumed to have a connection with their home country. They may have to show intent to return to their country of origin. Sometimes there are additional requirements, for example, that voters must not be abroad for longer than a specified number of years.

Ways of voting

There are several ways in which migrants can cast their vote from abroad. Some countries offer alternative methods for voting from abroad, while other countries limit their options to one, for logistical or financial reasons. The four main voting options are the following.

* Personal voting. The voter must go to a specific place and cast his or her vote there in person. This can be a diplomatic mission or a polling place specially set up abroad. This is the procedure most widely used for casting an external vote.

* Postal voting. The voter fills out the ballot paper at a place he or she chooses and the vote is then transmitted by registered post to the home country. Sometimes witnesses are required to confirm the identity of the voter and certify that he or she has marked the ballot paper without interference.

* The proxy vote. A citizen living or staying abroad may be enabled to vote by choosing a proxy who casts the vote for the voter at a polling place in the home country.

* Electronic means. The voter may use the Internet, personal digital assistants (PDAs), or a mobile phone to cast his or her vote. This type of electronic voting referred to as e-voting may become more common in future.

Most countries with provisions for external voting organise it through their embassy administrative settings, with assistance of mail services and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. However, a smaller number of countries organise it with the assistance of international organisations. Assistance of international partners may be necessary in some cases for a variety of reasons, including issues relating to security or organisational settings.

Consensus

It is time that civic organisations in Sri Lanka start intensive discussions about an external voting program. Their attention should be concentrated particularly to the problems related to the revision of electoral legislation. They should also come into consensus of the conditions for entitlement to vote and the practical process of implementation of external voting. The rights of displaced persons with respect to enfranchisement and participation together with those of migrant workers related to external voting will be thorny issues to be reconciled.

Let us remember that when citizens living abroad are claiming the right to vote, denying it may result in some loss of legitimacy. But it is equally important to understand that an external voting process which is perceived as biased in favour of particular political interests may cause electoral events to lose legitimacy in the eyes of the domestic public. Political forces which would benefit would then be likely to deem external voting to be legitimate, while those who would suffer would be likely to take the opposite view. Under these circumstances, the legitimacy of the political system may be brought into question by the introduction of external voting.

The Constitution of Sri Lanka gives the right to every citizen to vote whether he/she resides in Sri Lanka or not. Article 4 of the Constitution states “the franchise shall be exercisable at the election of the President of the Republic and of Members of Parliament and at every Referendum by every citizen who has attained the age of 18 years and who has qualified to be an elector as hereinafter provided and has his/her name entered in the Register of Voters.”

Sri Lanka has also ratified the International Convention on the Protection of Rights of all Migrant Workers and their Families. Article 41 of the Convention states as follows: (1) “the migrant workers and members of their families shall have the right to participate in public affairs of their state of origin and to vote and be elected at the elections of that state in accordance with its legislation; (ii) the states concerned shall as appropriate and in accordance with their legislation facilitate the exercise of these rights”.

I believe the time has come for us to review our election laws enabling our migrant workers and their families to vote at least during our Parliamentary and Presidential Elections.