Voting for the 2014 general election will begin on April 7, the
Election Commission said on Wednesday.
More than 814 million
people — a number larger than the population of Europe — will be eligible to
vote in the world’s biggest democratic exercise.
Voting will be held in
nine stages, which will be staggered until May 12, and results are due to be
announced on May 16. Elections to
state assemblies in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim will be held simultaneously.
Around 930,000
polling stations will
be set up for the month-long election using electronic voting machines, first
introduced in 2004.
About 23 million eligible
voters have been enrolled in the 18 to 19 age group, nearly 3 percent of
India’s voters.
Of India’s 814.5
million eligible voters, 28,314 identify themselves as
transgender and their gender is listed as “other”. There are 11,844
non-resident Indians registered to vote in the election this year.
Since introducing photo
voter ID cards and electoral rolls in 2009, 98 percent of India’s eligible
voters have the former, 96 percent have the latter.
Electronic voting machine
security includes: transported under armed escort and stored in strong rooms,
with a double lock system and guarded 24×7 by armed police, and CCTV coverage.
Also, parties/candidates allowed to keep a watch on them.
“Basic Minimum Facilities”
for polling stations include drinking water, shed, toilet, ramp for disabled
voters.
Voters will have a “None
of the Above” option on voting machines.
Narendra Modi of the
Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged as
the favourite in
opinion polls, which reflect waning support for Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party
that wrested power from the BJP in 2004.
Modi, the chief minister
of Gujarat, will also be challenged by a clutch of regional parties that arevying for
power as part of a
“third front” opposed to both the Congress and the BJP.
Also in the race is Arvind
Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party, which made a stunning
debut in Delhi
elections last year and is now eyeing a national presence on the
anti-corruption plank.
Here’s a look at the
election schedule, and the states and union territories going to polls:
April 7 (six constituencies) – Assam, Tripura
April 9 (seven constituencies) – Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya,
Mizoram, Nagaland
April 10 (92 constituencies) – Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jammu and
Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh,
Andaman and Nicobar islands, Chandigarh, Lakshadweep, Delhi
April 12 (five constituencies) – Assam, Sikkim, Tripura
April 17 (122 constituencies) – Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jammu and
Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha,
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal
April 24 (117 constituencies) – Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and
Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar
Pradesh, West Bengal, Puducherry
April 30 (89 constituencies) – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Jammu and
Kashmir, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and
Diu
May 7 (64 constituencies) – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh,
Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal
May 12 (41 constituencies) – Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal
MORE ON THE ELECTION
The new Lok Sabha is expected to be constituted by June 1 with 543 lawmakers
chosen from across India. Of these, 131 seats are reserved for candidates from
the country’s scheduled castes and tribes.
Two other lawmakers can be
appointed to the Lok Sabha by the president to ensure the representation of
India’s tiny Anglo-Indian community, taking the total number of lawmakers to
545.
A political party needs to
secure at least 272 seats to form the government.
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