When Indians go to the polls on Friday, it will be just the beginning of a colossal democratic process. Only on June 4, after six weeks of voting, will India know whether its powerful Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, will remain in office for a third term.
Why is it all taking so long? The short answer: India is the most populous country in the world, with 969 million eligible voters. That’s more than a tenth of the world’s population, or about four times the number of eligible voters in the second-largest democracy, the United States.
The longer answer has to do with India’s geography, election rules, security apparatus, holidays and electronic voting machines – a complicated choreography for a large, complicated nation.
Astonishingly large
India’s first national parliamentary elections, from 1951 to 1952, lasted more than 120 days. In 1977 they lasted five days. But they have generally lasted weeks or months, even without primaries, because of their sheer size.
The country covers an area of more than a million square kilometers, with people living in megacities spread across the Himalayas, in the Thar Desert, in forests and along the Ganges.
Indian law also stipulates that voters cannot travel more than two kilometers from their home to go to a polling station. To make that possible, twelve million election workers will cross the country this year to set up polling stations, sometimes on foot, by bicycle, by helicopter or by boat – or even by horse, camel or elephant.
Some of those trips can take days. In 2019, the country’s highest polling station was located over 4,500 meters above sea level in the Spiti Valley of the Himalayas. In 2009, a team of five trekked deep into the Gir forest in Gujarat, western India, to reach the lone occupant of a remote Hindu temple.
“It’s an honor, really,” the priest, Bharatdas Darshandas, told reporters after that year’s elections. “It proves how India values its democracy.”
Keep order
In the early years of Indian democracy, clashes between supporters of rival parties were deadly. Candidates were kidnapped. Local police officers, who failed to maintain order, were accused of taking sides under pressure from ruling politicians. From the 1990s onwards, national paramilitary forces were deployed on a large scale during elections.
India is deploying more than 300,000 members of its federal security forces this year to transport voting machines and maintain peace at polling booths. Since they cannot cover the entire country at once, the elections are split into multiple phases. In each phase, the soldiers move from one region to another.
These security measures extend elections that would otherwise last a few days, said Vikram Singh, the former police chief of India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, who had overseen security forces in previous elections. But he said it made voters safer.
Violence is uncommon at polling stations these days. The presence of soldiers also inspires confidence in the election results.
While having multiple phases has prevented violent outbreaks, it has also led to criticism that it makes the election process take too long. SY Quraishi, a former chief election commissioner, said in an interview that the gaps between phases had given more time for rumors and misinformation to spread.
Working around public holidays
When the Election Commission of India schedules votes, it tries to avoid the various national holidays and religious festivals in India. The harvest season, academic calendar, exam schedules and weather are also taken into account.
The careful planning contributed to a high turnout in the elections. In 2019, 67 percent of the electorate voted in the national elections, the highest participation rate in the country’s history.
One holiday during these elections is Mahavir Jayanti, on April 21, one of the most important festivals in Jainism, a religion of about six million people in India. Another is Buddha’s birthday, May 23, when monks will carry sacred relics of Buddha on chariots, and people will decorate their homes with flowers and donate money to those in need.
Millions of machines
Electronic voting machines became the standard in all national elections in India in 2004. They have made voting easier for millions of people, especially in India’s busy cities, where the busiest polling stations can serve up to 12,000 people on voting day.
The machines are built to be more portable and lightweight than traditional ballot boxes. But they must be transported to where the polling stations are located. Each machine consists of a “control unit” that counts and stores the votes; “voting units” with buttons that voters press; and a printer that creates a paper trail.
They also come with special carrying bags, making them easy to pack. Workers follow extensive safety measures to transport them across the country.
Thanks to these machines, counting goes quickly once the voting is over.