NESHWIN ALMEIDA

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MARGAO: A group of friends at a recent party were discussing how the Russians had a polling booth in Goa months back, which helped them to cast their votes in the presidential elections back home. 

At the party, a Goan, who is a Portuguese passport holder, sadly discerned how he like many Goans had to give up the right to vote in their homeland.

“I want the entire overseas population to have voting rights wherever they are and I want Goans globally to be stakeholders of our motherland and when we do this, there will be development,” states Luizinho Faleiro, Congress President who’s recently been abroad meeting various Global Goan unions.

But NRI Commissioner Dr Wilfred Misquita believes otherwise. He feels that the law of the land should be the final decider wherein anyone who gives up their citizenship has given up their right to vote.

With Brexit round the corner, many Goans who have applied for a Portuguese passport, are in a limbo and are eager to know as to what will happen. At the same time, they fear that they will have to return to Goa after their Portuguese passports are issued and they can’t make it to the UK. While some Goans yearn to hold onto their voting rights but others are fine in forgoing the same.

Benson D’Souza, who lost his voting right after settling down in the UK, feels it makes sense respecting the constitutional laws on citizenship.  

Employed on a ship, Jhonny Dias, who has returned from Norway, explains, “We, especially those employed in the Gulf, remit money back home by contributing to the state’s economy and we have been left with no voting right, which is completely unfair. We definitely feel hurt. The government which will come to power in the future has to consider the laws to ensure Goans abroad have voting rights. It would give Goans abroad a greater sense of responsibility and it would also mean that the overseas Goans cannot be taken for granted by the politicians.”

“Yeshwant Naik, who opted for Portuguese citizenship and currently working in the UK, feels that the Goan community abroad is more robust and has a better sense of understanding in terms of planning and hence should be made stakeholders with voting rights since they don’t leave the state for money alone as Goa lacks opportunities”.

Rita Maria Souza, who has made her seventh trip to the Portuguese passport agent, has spent around Rs 2 lakh. She has registered her birth only for her son to avail the Portuguese passport but fears being branded a foreign national as she might have to forfeit her voting right. She hopes many Goans like her, don’t become victims of the citizenship row.

Benaulim resident Joe Fernandes, a victim of identity theft,  fears that the entire population of Goa may be at risk of impersonation, which could result in indirectly cancelling birth records in lieu of Portuguese passports for a third person all together.

The need of the hour is for the next government to brainstorm and decide how it wants to treat its sons of the soil living abroad and whether they require a voting right or not and whether is it really feasible,” Joe adds.