"This Indian General Election, the Election with the Highest Voter Turnout Worldwide"

The recently concluded six-week-long general election in India is expected to be recorded as the election with the highest number of voters participating worldwide.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to AFP on the 3rd (local time), the Election Commission of India announced that a total of approximately 642 million people participated in this general election. The voter turnout was 66.3%, which is slightly lower than the 67.1% turnout in the previous 2019 general election, but the number of voters participating set a world record.

Rajiv Kumar, Chairman of the Election Commission of India, emphasized at a press conference held in New Delhi on the same day, "This shows the remarkable power of Indian voters" and "It is something people need to know about the strength of Indian democracy."

The general election to elect 543 members of the Lok Sabha began on April 19 and concluded on the 1st of this month. According to exit polls, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), a political coalition led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is expected to secure more than 400 seats.

In response, the opposition political coalition Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA), led by former Indian National Congress (INC) president Rahul Gandhi, claimed that exit polls have often been wrong in the past and asserted that they will achieve their self-set target of 295 seats.