Should direct diasporans be allowed to vote in home country elections?

[get these nets]

There was an African journalist (forgot what nationality) floated the idea of diaspora not sending remittances especially nearing election season.

Going to look up the article, thanks.

 

[Enzo]

Maybe an observer seat

 

[get these nets]

Maybe an observer seat

The African Union has this.

 

[Mega]

Of course the Senate did, people have to understand that the diaspora population (1) who do not come from the elite of the country origin AND (2) who have had exposure in living in industrialized western countries have a different mentality. That mentality is what the corrupt and incompetent elites in many African countries are afraid of so therefore limiting voting rights.

Same exact issue we are facing in Haiti.

 

[IslandG]

People should only vote where they pay their taxes. If you’re not paying taxes in the country you shouldn’t get to vote there.

 

[Gunz&Butta]

Yes, if you pay taxes and live there at least 6 months in a year.

 

[3rdWorld]

Yeah, you can't stop them really.
If their nation allows for dual nationality it is what it is.

I know a lady with a US, UK and Zambian passport.
Moms from Zambia, Pops from the UK and she was born in the US.

 

[get these nets]

@Anwulika

We were discussing the point you just made about the segment of populations that immigrants generally come from earlier in this thread.
Point that's made several times by people from different regions and countries. We've even put up publications from the Census Bureau about Black immigrants and migration patterns.

People believe what they want to believe in TLR, not what the facts support.

 

[videogamestashbox.com]

Should they:
If you are a citizen of a country of course you should be able to vote. That's what citizenship entails. How are you going to tax foreign income then deny the taxed person a vote on what to do with their money. Hell, even if the country doesn't tax foreign income my position doesn't change.

Will they:
Depends on the dynamics of the country in question.

 

[Anwulika]

Yes

This story is playing out in multiple Black countries, as post colonization diasporas have formed outside their borders.
Contrary to what many here think, your first point is spot on, and is true more often than not for most of these countries. The elites, oligarch familiies, power holders tend to NOT become immigrants and start all over in a different country. Perhaps go abroad to study, but not to live.
The waves of immigrants from Black countries occupied different social positions back home.
No reason for people with power and control of industry and govt. to leave and start over.

Also, the home society is often structured in a way that protects their positions and prevents social mobility of those from other segments.

Exactly. That's why so many have to immigrate — working class and middle class. So many Nigerians grow up with the notion that if you work hard enough, go to university and get your degree then you'll see your family out of poverty and into the middle or even elite classes. This isn't true for most graduates.

Young, qualified and barely scraping by – inside Nigeria’s economic crisis
With unemployment among the world’s worst and those under 35 hit hardest, young Nigerians see their prospects rapidly diminish

Emmanuel Akinwotu in Lagos
Mon 14 Jun 2021 02.38 EDT
Favour Obi graduated in 2016 with a first class degree in biomedical sciences and what felt like reasonable hopes for a career in medical research.

Before a recent shift waiting tables at a fast food restaurant in Lagos, the 27-year-old explained how gradually she let those hopes drift away. “I knew it would be hard to find a job but at the same time I was so determined, I was staying hopeful,” she said.

Her job for the past three and a half years pays 35,000 naira (£60) a month, just above Nigeria’s minimum wage and barely enough to live on. It was initially meant to be temporary.
“But it’s been years now and I’m still here. There are so many people I know in a similar position,” she said, describing friends around her age, who were well-qualified yet grappling with how to do more than just survive.

Obtaining a graduate degree has always been revered in her family, Obi said, yet her post-university life has been an uphill struggle. Like many of her generation she has been forced to learn trades and pursue other career paths. “We grow up being told that going to university will help you become successful,” she said. “Being qualified makes us proud, our parents are proud, but for many of us, it hasn’t changed our lives for the better because we’re lacking jobs.”

Nigeria’s vast, rapidly growing population of 200 million people has a median age of just 18. Many of its young people have seen their prospects quickly diminish in recent years.

Since 2015, Nigeria has endured one of its worst economic slumps in a generation. Two recessions since 2016 – driven by a combination of the government’s economic policies, a collapse in oil prices, and the Covid-19 pandemic – have inflicted prolonged misery.

The economic challenges are stark and affect people across the age spectrum, but the rise of youth unemployment has been among the most troubling factors.

The unemployment rate has quadrupled since 2015 to become one of the worst globally. At the end of last year, 23 million people – or 33% of working age people looking for work – were recorded as unemployed, according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and younger people were worst affected.

Almost half of working-age Nigerians under 35 are either unemployed or underemployed – working part-time when they would like to be full time – the NBS said in March. A shadow has been cast over the young, reinforcing the sense that greener pastures lie elsewhere.

“Many people now just want to leave,” Obi said. “So many people I know don’t see Nigeria as a place they can actually thrive.”

Throughout the morning, dozens of mainly young people stream in and out of a dim hallway in an old building in the Lagos Island district of Nigeria’s sprawling metropolis, meeting job agents who connect them to employers.

“The number of jobs are shrinking and the number of people looking is growing everyday,” said 46-year-old Julius Oshie, a job agent for the past five years, as he explained how the job market had dramatically changed.

“The other problem is that the type of jobs available are not what many young people see as beneficial to them. They are jobs that they take to survive, not to get on in life,” he said. “Cleaning jobs, bar jobs, ‘house helps’ [maids]. And it’s not just the poorer masses taking these jobs. It’s the aspirational classes, the more highly educated,” he said. “It’s been like this for a long time, it’s just you can say it’s getting worse.”

Oshie gestured to a stack of CVs at the end of his desk. “I have people with top degrees in very technical, impressive subjects – physics, statistics – and they come here and after years without work in their field, they’re going to low earning jobs, paying less than 30,000 naira per month,” he said.

In some cases, white collar jobs had less appeal, Oshie said, due to corporate companies cutting the wages offered as the economy has struggled. It was also common for employers to complain that roles went unfilled because of skills shortages.

Attaining a university degree is a dominant aspiration in Nigerian culture, which venerates academic achievement and excellence. Many people see higher education as a route out of poverty, yet in practice university qualifications are not working for many young people, said Tokunbo Afikuyomi, the editor of Stears Business, an economic analysis company based in Lagos.

“We have a situation where the more middle class and educated class are struggling to find work. The unemployment rate of those who left secondary school is lower than the unemployment rate of those who left university,” he said.

Many Nigerians blame president Muhammadu Buhari’s government for exacerbating the oil and Covid crises by closing land borders for extended periods, enacting import bans and failing to deal with rising insecurity.


In response to rising unemployment, the Buhari government has adopted a number of jobs programmes, including some targeted at young people and graduates that provide short-term roles, placements and training. The government says many of the programmes have helped to boost the employment prospects of hundreds of thousands of young people.

It is expected, for instance, that mass job programmes such as the Special Public Works scheme – the largest such programme in the country’s history – will provide 750,000 three-month jobs to unemployed graduates this year.

But Afikuyomi said the benefits the scheme were limited. “With jobs, they can’t be created by force,” he said. “If you’re not building enough houses, or infrastructure you get a situation where you create a jobs programme where people only have jobs for a fixed period, then they’re unemployed again.”

Young, qualified and barely scraping by – inside Nigeria’s economic crisis | Nigeria | The Guardian

 

[get these nets]

Candidate for President of Kenya, William Ruto, is courting support from the diaspora as he visits US, and UK

 

[get these nets]

 

[mbewane]

In normal democracies the right to vote in the most important election (president, prime minister, etc) is only linked to citizenship. If you're a citizen of country A, you can vote for the President of A. If you're not, you can't. That's the only thing that matters, regardless of where you live, how you obtained that citizenship, where you pay taxes, etc. Not all diasporans are actually citizens of their country of origin, those who aren't shouldn't be able to vote, those who do hold citizenship of their "country of origin" should be.

(I specified "for the most important election" because in the EU as an European Citizen you can vote for local elections in whatever EU country you reside, regardless of whether you're a citizen of that country or not. Meaning that as a Belgian I can vote for the mayor in France, for example - on top of EU elections obviously)

 

[mbewane]

No. Vote where you pay your taxes. No representation without taxation.

That's a catchy line, but it occults that the opposite should be true too : No taxation without representation. Meaning foreigners who pay taxes in any given country there should have the right to vote in all the elections of that country.

 

[get these nets]

2023: Court dismisses suit seeking to allow Nigerians in diaspora to vote during general elections - The Street Journal

A federal high court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, has dismissed a suit seeking to allow Nigerians in diaspora to vote during the forthcoming general elections.

thestreetjournal.org

Nigeria: Polls - Why Nigerians in Diaspora Can't Vote - Court​

16 February 2023

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday declined to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to allow Nigerians in diaspora participate in the forthcoming general elections.

The court, in a judgement delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, held that existing laws in the country didn't permit INEC to include citizens in diaspora in the database of eligible voters for the election.
According to the court, by the provisions of Sections 77 (2) and 117 (2) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, the right to vote was reserved for every citizen of Nigeria that has attained the age of 18 years and who is residing in the country at the time of registration of voters for the purpose of election.
Justice Ekwo noted that there was a lacuna in the Constitution that ought to be filled to guarantee the right of citizens outside the shores of the country to vote.
It will be recalled that Nigerians in diaspora had sued President Muhammadu Buhari and INEC, insisting they must be allowed to participate in the 2023 general elections.

The plaintiffs, who told the court that they are resident in the United Kingdom and various parts of the world, prayed the court to halt further preparations for the elections, pending their inclusion in INEC's database.


They contended that the continued refusal of the electoral body to create room for them to participate in general elections, amounted to gross violation of their fundamental rights.
The suit marked: FHC/ ABJ/ CS/2119/2022, was brought by two plaintiffs, Chikwe Nkemnacho and Kenneth Azubuike Nkemnacho, both of whom are resident in the UK.
the plaintiffs, among other things, prayed the court to declare that they were entitled to participate in the electoral process by being registered to vote in 2023 and in all elections wherever they are domiciled worldwide, in line with sections 13, 14, 42 and 17 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
As well as a declaration that there was sufficient time for INEC to include them in its database.
Cited as 1st to 4th defendants in the matter were; the INEC and its Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, President Buhari and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In his judgement, Justice Ekwo held that the Constitution was specific that only citizens "residing in Nigeria", could vote in an election