General election of India 2024: Salient features
Managing an electorate of size as high as 97 Crore is not a simple task. As on 2024, the total number of eligible voters of India is 3 times the population of USA.
Voting happens by electronic mode by Electronic voting machine (EVM) along with Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT).
Second longest election
The
2024 election was India’s second longest ever (44 days) after its first elections in the early 1950s, which lasted close to four
months.
Voting system
India uses 'First Past the Post' model for election where constituency wise candidate who secure more vote wins the seat. This system is followed in UK and USA. The other system is 'Proportional Representation', where seats are allocated based on % votes, not by seat wise but as a country as a whole. Israel follows this model. There are positive and negatives of both the models, which will be discussed in future.
Number says it all
Total number of seat in Parliament (Loksabha): 543
General: 412 (76%)
SC: 84 (15%)
ST: 47 (9%)
Voters
Registered voters: ~97 crore (96,88,21,926)
Male ~49.7 Cr. (51.2%),
Female ~47.1 Cr. (48.5%)
First time voters (18-19): ~1.8 Cr.: 1.8%
Women electors(18-19) ~85.3 Lakh
Young voters (20-29): ~19.74 Cr. : 20.3%
Persons with disabilities (PwD): ~88.4 Lakhs
Transgender: ~48,000
85+ age voters: ~82 Lakhs
Centenarians (100+): ~2.18 Lakhs
Tools
Polling stations: ~10.5 lakh
Polling officials & security staff: ~1.5 crore
EVMs: ~55 lakh
Distinctions
World highest Polling Station (PS): Tashigang, Himachal Prasad
PS with with one voter: A remote hamlet of Malogam, Arunachal Pradesh
PS in a shipping container: Aliabet, Bharuch, Gujarat
PS setup in the scattered Islands: Dumbur Lake, Tripura
PS inside Wild Life Sanctuary in Chettialathoor, Wayanad, Kerala
Innovative measures for the first time
Voters above 85 years of age and Persons with Disabilities with 40% benchmark
disability voted from home.
- For PwD voters:
Braille enabled EPIC, Voter Guide, volunteer at a polling station in Bihar.
- Digital information
27 IT Apps were in place for Downloading e-EPIC and other voting related information.
Gold standard in track record
So far up-to 2024, the ECI has conducted
17 general elections,
over 400 assembly polls,
16 presidential polls, and
16 vice-presidential polls.
Phase wise voter turn out
1st (19 April 2024): 66.14%,
2nd (26 Apr 2024): 66.71%,
3rd (07 May 2024): 65.68%,
4th (13 May 2024): 69.16%,
5th (20 May 2024): 62.2%,
6th (25 May 2024): 63.36%,
7th (1 June 2024): 61.63%.
Average: 64.98% (65%)
So, 63 Cr people exercised their voting power, a constitutional responsibility.
Counting date is on 4th June 2024
Reference
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