An election officer applies an indelible ink mark on the finger of a Mishing woman voter during the first phase of elections at Misamora Sapori, an island in the River Brahmaputra in Assam state on April 7. India started the world’s largest election on Monday. The country’s 814 million electorate will vote in stages over the next five weeks. (AP Photo)
GUWAHATI, APRIL 7 (AP): Voters in India’s remote northeast cast ballots on the first day of the world’s biggest election Monday.
With 814 million eligible voters, India will vote in stages over the next five weeks in a staggered approach made necessary by the country’s vast size. Voters will choose representatives for the 543-seat lower house of parliament. Results from all 935,000 polling stations are expected on May 16.
“I’ve made it a point to vote this time because we want change,” said 36-year-old housewife Rumi Nath, waiting to vote in the rural town of Lakhimpur on the Brahmaputra River. “Our area remains backward and underdeveloped 67 years after independence.”
Polls suggest Congress could face a drubbing due to corruption scandals and recent years of economic slowdown. The election will be key to the future of the family dynasty that has ruled India for much of its post-independence history.
But even as Congress faces a backlash, critics of Modi question whether the Hindu nationalist candidate can be a truly secular leader. The BJP was the last major party on Monday to release its campaign manifesto, which envisions India’s path toward full development through futuristic infrastructure projects such as high-speed trains, 100 new modern cities and wireless Internet facilities in public places. But such ambitious plans hold little appeal for most voters in rural Assam, where voting took place Monday in five constituencies as well as in one in neighboring Tripura state.
Here, people are more concerned about basic needs like guarding against the dangers of flooding, soil erosion and heavy rains washing away homes, or building more roads and bridges to connect far-away towns and villages to the main cities. “As monsoon sets in, we get worried about our daily meals,” said Pulok Nath, a voter in Lakhimpur. “We have been living on a mud embankment for years now after floods washed away our home and large part of our village.”
Several of the 8,000 polling stations were temporarily closed while faulty voting machines were fixed or replaced. At the end of Monday’s voting, officials said turnout for the first day of polling was 74 percent. Several groups of separatist ethnic or Maoist rebels have threatened violence during the vote.
Authorities said there were no violent incidents at the polls, thanks to the deployment of 25,000 police and paramilitary troops to guard polling stations. Helicopters were put on standby, and borders with Bangladesh and Bhutan were sealed.
