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A billion Indians embark on 43-day national election


On April 19, 2024, voting in the third largest Asian country, India, kicked off in what is being touted as the world’s largest election. This is because there are about 970 million registered voters who are expected to cast votes for 543 Parliamentary seats between April 19 and June 1, 2024.

According to reports out of India, this voting will take place in seven phases. The first phase will involve voting in 21 of 28 Indian states- and in these 21 states, 102 of the 543 Parliamentary seats will be voted for to chose politicians who will be in office for five years.

In the second phase, 89 constituencies will have elections on April 26, 2024, across 12 states while in the third phase, 94 constituencies across 10 states will have their elections on May 7, 2024. In phases four and five, on May 13, elections will be held in 96 constituencies across ten states; and 49 constituencies will have elections across eight states on May 20 respectively.

In phase six, 57 constituencies across seven states will have their elections on May 25 while in phase seven, 57 constituencies will have their elections across eight states on June 1, 2024.

The final voting results will then be announced on June 4, 2024.

Due to the sheer number of voters, some states may have voting for a day while others may take a while longer, hence the summed up total of 43 days to complete the voting and tallying process by the Election Commission of India.

According to the Commission, 15 million election officials and security staff were deployed across the country to ensure every registered voter gets to exercise their right to vote. For electronic voting machines, the Commission released 5.5 million machines to one million polling stations across India- including in remote areas.

In light of the massive undertaking by the Election Commission of India, the voting, tallying and results announcement by Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in the 2022 General Election would appear as child’s play.

Approximately 14 million Kenyans took to the polls on August 9, 2022 to vote in 1,882 elective slots. 55,100 Kenya Integrated Election Management System (KIEMS) kits were deployed to 46.232 polling stations across the country. However, the most anticipated results were those for the presidential election and this saw Kenyans wait an unprecedented number of days filled with controversy before IEBC named William Ruto the victor.

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