India as one of the largest and most populous countries in the world makes the election in Indian politics is not an easy task. India is the fastest-growing population in the world even though the young people will make up more than a third of the country. With the 1,3 billion population, India is the world’s largest democracy.
Indian’s federal electoral model follows a parliamentary system which is the party wins the majority of seats gets to choose the Prime Minister. So, with the quality of India’s democracy and all of the social economics and political issues, how is the election organized?
Election in India
The election in India is not like others. India’s election is getting bigger and more complicated. India’s election is the world’s biggest election with 900 million people are eligible to vote which makes India need to put in a big effort to make the democratic exercise as hospitable as possible. All the people regardless of literacy level, language, gender, class, religion, occupation, and wealth could vote.
For the election, India is using EVM or Electronic Voting Machines. This machine is used for recording votes. In 2019, India has 3,96 million EVM for its 900 million voters. They also hiring 11 million government workers to take on election duty including 2,5 million security personnel. This is a big task to transport the machines to every voting station. Because the voting station has to be no farther than 2 kilometers from every voter across the country. There are 1.035 million polling stations. So, this machine logistic is the heart of the election process. The EVM also increased security around the elections.
The Process
The difficult process of the election makes there’s no election day in India instead it’s an election month. Voting takes place in multiple phases across the regions. The election officials travel a long distance to make sure the electoral process is conducted peacefully. Even they use many ways for machine logistics, such as helicopters, trains, boats, planes, camels, elephants, hiking, and more. This various transportation shows how hard the election process is to make sure that everyone in the country can participate. This shows that the massive election is an important part of the Indian politics.
Election day in India is just like most other countries. The voters just need to line up, cast their vote, and get their fingers inked to prevent double voting. What makes it different is they vote using EVM. The election day for the voters is easy but for the election official, it’s not the end of the process. The votes counting is another big task of the election day in India. With the high of 900 million people’s votes, there are four thousand counting centers set up across the country.
There are many issues happening during the election process such as security issues like physical threats and bribe. This is one of the challenges that the commission faces during the election. India’s election commission is an autonomous constitutional authority that is given absolute power to supervise direct control and conduct the election process. This commission is responsible for administering election processes in India. That makes the election commission have an important role in Indian Politics.