India Prepares for Elections Starting April 20

Voice of America ^ | 29 Feb 2004, 13:00 UTC | Anjana Pasricha

[VinayFromBangalore]

Indian voters will elect a new parliament in four stages starting April 20. India's independent election commission will hold voting for national polls on four days: April 20 and 26, and May 5 and 10. The votes will be counted on May 13.

Voting in India is staggered to allow paramilitary soldiers and election officials to move around the country to provide polling security - the world's largest electoral exercise. Nearly 650 million people out of India's billion-plus population will be eligible to vote.

The polls will pit the Bharatiya Janata Party, which heads the current ruling coalition, against the opposition Congress Party.

The BJP dissolved parliament in early February, paving the way for elections to be held nearly six months ahead of schedule. The party is hoping to benefit from what it calls a "feel-good factor" in the country due to a booming economy and recent peace moves with Pakistan.

A string of recent successes in state elections has also encouraged the party to hold the polls early.

India's chief election commissioner, T.S. Krishnamurthy, is calling the upcoming election "historic and unique," because electronic voting machines will be used nationwide for the first time.

"We are going to have all-electronic election in this country. These electronic voting machines are proposed to be used from the Himalayas to Kanya Kumari," he said, referring to India's southernmost tip.

India's political parties have already kicked off their election campaigns in most parts of the country.

Mr. Krishnamurthy is appealing to the parties to shun the violence the usually marks Indian election campaigns.

"I would appeal to them [political parties] to realize that in the long run good governance and responsibility to the voters alone will decide the fate of the candidates," said Mr. Krishnamurthy. "So I would appeal to them to take this aspect seriously and avoid unnecessary violence and criminal activities."

Polls for four state governments - in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim - will be held simultaneously with the general election.

India's lower house of parliament has 545 members, who are directly elected for a five-year term.

[VinayFromBangalore]

Indian elections to be decided by May 13
(Reuters)

29 February 2004



NEW DELHI - India, the world’s largest democracy, will go to early polls in four stages from April 20 to May 10 in an election expected to return the ruling Hindu nationalist-led coalition.


Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishnamurthy told reporters on Sunday that counting and results were due on May 13.

He appealed for peaceful and fair campaigning by parties in what is traditionally a boisterous and sometimes volatile exercise, but which this year for the first time bars candidates with a criminal record.

“We do not want the election to be conducted on the basis of violence and personal attacks,” Krishnamurthy told reporters. “I would appeal to them to...avoid unnecessary violence and criminal activities.”

Many candidates in previous polls had, and sometimes boasted of, hundreds of convictions and some contested from jail.

Opinion polls show Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition winning another five-year term, helped by one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and prospects of peace with nuclear rival Pakistan.

More than 670 million Indians aged 18 and above are eligible to vote in the national elections, which will be held in conjunction with state polls in Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Karnataka.

More than one million electronic voting machines will be used for the nation’s first fully electronic national election and hundreds of thousands of police and soldiers will be deployed.

The sheer size of the exercise means voting has to be held in stages to allow time to move electoral officials and security forces around the vast country.

The second round of voting will be on April 26 and the third on May 5, Krishnamurthy said.

Vajpayee’s BJP and chief rival the Congress Party, led by Sonia Gandhi, have been campaigning since the 545-member parliament was dissolved this month, but all parties are expected to boost their efforts now the dates have been set.

Neither side is likely to win a majority. BJP and Congress officials are touring the country trying to shore up alliances.

The BJP has about 180 seats in the outgoing parliament and Congress about 109.

With millions of new first-time voters since the last election in 1999, Krishnamurthy appealed for a better turnout than the average 50 percent to 55 percent.

“Let India shine in the conduct of the elections,” he said, playing on the slogan of the government’s “India Shining” campaign aimed at highlighting the benefits of the country’s brightest economic outlook in almost a decade.

[Cronos]

Nearly 650 million people out of India's billion-plus population will be eligible to vote.

errr... WOW!!

And they've been doing this continuously since it gained independence!