After six weeks of voting, nearly 642 million Indians have voted in their legislative elections. “This is a historic moment for all of us,” said Rajiv Kumar, the chief election commissioner. The latter stressed that no “major incident of violence” had been reported.
A total of 642 million Indians took part in the general elections which have just concluded after six weeks of voting, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told reporters on Monday. “We have broken a world record with 642 million Indian voters, it is a historic moment for all of us,” declared Rajiv Kumar, specifying that 312 million were female voters, or almost half.
“This shows the incredible power of Indian voters,” he continued, praising “the incredible power of Indian democracy.” Based on the 968 million voters identified by the commission, 66.3% of voters called to the polls took part in the vote, a slight decrease compared to the last general elections in 2019.
“No major incidents of violence”
According to Rajiv Kumar, “642 million voters chose action over apathy, belief over cynicism and, in some cases, the ballot over the bullet.” “No major incidents of violence” were reported according to the electoral commission, he added. The seventh and final phase of these general elections ended on Saturday after six weeks of voting. The count and results are expected on Tuesday.
According to exit polls, Narendra Modi is on track to win a third term as head of government. The Prime Minister said he was certain that “the people of India voted in record numbers” to re-elect him. India uses electronic machines allowing rapid counting of ballots. “We have established a robust counting process,” said Rajiv Kumar.