Watch live outside a vote counting center in New Delhi, as counting of more than 640 million votes in the world’s largest democracy begins after six weeks of voting.
Edited By
YIRMIYAN ARTHUR and MALLIKA SEN
Updated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year]
Vote counting is underway in India’s 2024 Lok Sabha election. Results in the world’s largest election could also be among its most consequential; voters are choosing 543 members for the lower house of Parliament for a five-year term.
Here’s what to know:
- When will results be announced?: The vote counting will be updated throughout the day, with the first results expected in the afternoon local time.
- Who is running?: The election pits Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an avowed Hindu nationalist, against a broad alliance of opposition parties that are struggling to play catch up.
- What’s at stake?: For decades, India has clung doggedly to its democratic convictions, largely due to free elections, an independent judiciary, a thriving media, strong opposition and peaceful transition of power. Some of these credentials have eroded under Modi’s 10-year rule, with the polls seen as a test for the country’s democratic values.
As votes are tallied, Indian markets open lower after surging the day before
Election officials carry sealed electronic voting machines at a counting center in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, June 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Indian markets opened lower Tuesday after closing the night before at all-time highs as exit polling projected a comfortable win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
Modi’s business-friendly policies have won him widespread support among India’s corporations and industry. After a decade in power, Modi was widely expected to win a third five-year term.
In early morning trading India’s benchmark stock indices — the NIFTY 50 and the BSE Sensex — were both down by more than 3% as India’s marathon election entered its final phase with the counting of some 642 million ballots.
The Indian market’s opening dip followed a broader trend in Asian markets, which retreated after a report showed U.S. manufacturing contracted in May in the latest sign the economy is slowing.
Why do the Indian elections take so long?
It boils down to two key reasons: the sheer size of India, the world’s most populous country, and the astonishing level of logistics needed to ensure that every registered voter is able to cast their ballot.
Over the years, the duration of voting has wavered. It took nearly four months to complete the vote in India’s first elections in 1951-1952, after it gained independence from British rule, and just four days in 1980. In 2019, voting took 39 days. This year’s election is the second longest.
With 970 million registered voters, the size of India’s electorate is bigger than the combined population of the 27 European Union member states.
While some of India’s 28 state and eight federal territories cast their ballots in a day, voting elsewhere took longer. The largest state, Uttar Pradesh, with 200 million people, voted on all seven days.
WATCH: How does India’s election work? AP Explains
India’s 6-week-long national election came to an end Saturday with most exit polls projecting Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to extend his decade in power with a third consecutive term.
Counting starts with postal ballots then moves to electronic ones
The counting of some 642 million votes cast in India’s election is being done at various locations around the country by government employees. Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar said they were starting with postal ballots and then move on to combining the votes from India’s electronic voting machines.
The process is expected to be completed by the end of the day.
India has close to 970 million eligible voters and votes were cast at more than a million polling stations staggered over the last six weeks.
That brought the final phase into India’s hottest season, with temperatures higher than 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in some parts of the country, and Kumar said the election officials learned a valuable lesson.
“We should have completed the election at least one month before,” he said ahead of the start of the counting. “We shouldn’t have let it continue into so much heat.”
India begins counting votes
India has begun counting more than 640 million votes in the world’s largest democratic exercise, which was widely expected to return Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a third term after a decade in power.
Nearly 970 million people, more than 10% of the world’s population, were eligible to vote. Turnout was around 66% on average across the seven phases, according to official data.
The tallying of votes Tuesday at counting centers in each of the 543 constituencies where polls were held could stretch into the evening before a final result is declared by the Election Commission of India.
But leads will start to emerge earlier, which will give an idea of where the results may be headed.
