Pros and cons of absentee voting

IT appears that the caretaker government has almost set its mind on granting voting rights to the overseas Bangladeshis. This decision may be both popular and constitutional. After all, in a democratic country every citizen is entitled to equal rights, so why deprive the overseas Bangladeshis of the right to vote?
Many Bangladeshis are living overseas mainly for economic reasons, yet they are making significant contribution to the Bangladesh economy through their hard-earned remittances, which is estimated at $5 billion. Hence, granting them the right to vote from their faraway locations makes a lot of sense.
There are other secondary benefits of granting voting rights to overseas Bangladeshis. The most important of which is registration of Bangladeshis through voter registration, which will have many positive consequences, ranging from welfare of the overseas workers to protection of their rights.
So why should one worry about pointing out the "cons"?
While the "pros" are quite obvious, the "cons" are somewhat unobvious.
There are mainly three points the Election Commission and concerned parties should seriously consider before granting the voting rights.
*There are an estimated three million (or more) Bangladeshis living overseas. They are spread out all over the world, and their registration will be a mammoth task. It is quite possible that some of them, depending on their proximity to the embassies, luck and exposure, will be registered and others will miss the opportunity. So the voting rights will be unevenly exercised.
*The various countries where Bangladeshis are scattered have different levels of political freedom. In some countries, open discussions, debates and even political rallies will allow overseas Bangladeshis to get a good deal of information and views on the candidates and their platforms. Yet, there are countries where such political debates and discussions are not permitted. For example, in USA, UAE and UK Bangladeshis can watch Bangladeshi television channels and keep themselves informed of the political developments back home, whereas their opportunity to discuss and deliberate on issues may be limited. And there are countries with large number of overseas Bangladeshis where there are no Bangladeshi television channels, and political activities are restricted. This will stand in the way of creating a level playing field in so far as political campaigns and activities are concerned.
*Bangladeshis living overseas, unlike many other communities, are quite divided along lines of class, politics and districts of origins. What the overseas Bangladeshi community needs is more unity so that they can protect their rights as an ethnic or national community. Active participation in national politics and voting will bring in its wake campaigning and further divisions, bitterness and fragmentations within the ranks of the Bangladeshis. This may be democratic, but such divisiveness will not help Bangladeshis stay as a cohesive community.
The administration should give serious consideration to these "cons."
It may be useful to look into the situation of absentee voting in other countries.
In America, overseas Americans got their right to vote only in 1975. Initially, the beneficiaries were the US military men and women overseas. No wonder the Congressional Act that enabled overseas Americans to vote is called, Uniformed Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). Cyber technology is almost a sine qua non for successful voter registration, information sharing, and so on. There are many nonpartisan groups, which provide information on voting registration.
Another country where overseas voting is important is the Philippines. There are over 3.5 million Filipino Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs) in the world who raked in over $14 billion in 2006. The literacy rate -- and computer literacy among the Filipino overseas workers who can make good use of the web-based resources -- is very high .
Here, the majority of the Bangladeshi workers will be at a disadvantage. Although many Bangladeshi workers have school even college level education, they lack computer literacy.
Two other countries where voting by overseas citizens has been quite successful are Australia and Singapore. The latter started it in 2001.In both Australia and Singapore voting is compulsory. In the case of Singapore, the advantage is that the number of overseas voters is relatively small, their computer literacy is very high, and the government is a trend setter in efficiency. Frankly speaking, the Bangladesh government is not quite there in efficiency yet.
In the cases of the Philippines and the US, the overseas voters vote in the presidential elections, where they choose between two or three candidates. In the case of the Philippines, under the Election Commission there is a committee on overseas absentee voting, which looks after the voting of the overseas Filipinos. Any Filipino who has lived overseas for more than 15 years is not eligible to vote.
For the Bangladeshi voters, there will be hundreds of candidates in a parliamentary election, where the constituencies of the voters will have to be matched with those of the candidates -- a Herculean task.
When all is said and done, do the overseas Bangladeshis deserve the right the vote? Yes. But not immediately. A solid system of voter registration is a precondition for absentee voting.
Before making a final decision, the Election Commission, which is currently manned by responsible and sincere people, must take all these pros and cons into due consideration.

Habibul Haque Khondker is a sociologist who teaches in Abu Dhabi, UAE.