The biggest election on earth: India's giant poll in numbers

The biggest election on earth: India’s giant poll in numbers

By : AFP

Date: 10 March 2019 4:09pm WAT

India's Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora speaks during a press conference in New Delhi on March 10, 2019. - India announced on March 10 a general election to be held over nearly six weeks starting on April 11, when hundreds of millions of voters will cast ballots in the world's biggest democracy. (Photo by STR / AFP)

India’s national election is the biggest democratic undertaking on Earth, with hundreds of millions of voters from the Himalayas to the tropics casting their ballot in the world’s second-most populous country.

Pulling off a vote of this size is no mean feat. Here are some of the bewildering numbers behind polls of this scale from the Election Commission of India:

– 900 million –
The number of Indians eligible to vote. At the last election in 2014 there were roughly 815 million, but just 550 million exercised their franchise.
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In India’s first election in 1951 there were 173 million eligible voters.

– 85 million –
The increase in eligible voters across India in this election compared to 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party stormed to power in a landslide.

– 15 million –
The number of eligible voters aged 18 to 19 in this election. Two-thirds of Indians are under 35.

– 38,325 –
Voters identifying as transgender, recognised by India’s Supreme Court as a distinct third gender in 2014.

– 1.1 million –
The number of electronic voting machines required for all the ballots to be cast in the mega-election.

– 1 million –
Polling stations to be erected for the election.
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– 8,251 –
The number of candidates across India who contested the elections in 2014.

– 3,626 –
The number of political parties — though only 1,841 are recognised by the Election Commission.

– 545 –
Seats in the lower house of India’s parliament, the Lok Sabha. Only 543 are up for grabs in this election — two are reserved for members of the country’s tiny Anglo-Indian community.

– 186 –
The number of lawmakers elected to parliament in 2014 with criminal records.

– 42 million –
The amount of dollars seized by election officials from politicians and their supporters for misuse — including vote buying — during the last poll. Candidates are only allowed to spend $100,000.

– 16 million –
Litres of alcohol confiscated by authorities during the 2014 campaign. Booze is often used to buy votes from poorer communities.

– 17,000 –
Kilograms of illegal drugs seized during the same period in 2014.
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