Indian Polls: The Times of India:
America's billion-dollar bash
The United States is going through its version of what we call a mid-term election. The entire House of Representatives, a third of the Senate, several gubernatorial positions, state legislative seats, posts in local governments, and even individual rights are being put to the ballot test in a noisy electoral test that compares favourably with India’s own tumultous and colourful exercise.But where the US takes the cake is the sheer expense involved in this exercise in...
Indian Polls: Violence, boycotts, low turnout mark first round of voting in Kashmir
Voting Tuesday in Kashmir for seats in India's parliament was marked by low turnout, deadly violence and a separatist-sponsored strike that brought major centres to a halt, officials said.Indian electoral officials, accusing Islamic militants of scaring away voters through violence, said 37 percent of registered voters had turned out in the divided state, where Islamic militants have been waging a bloody anti-Indian insurgency since 1989.In other Indian states where the...
Muslim strongholds to vote in pivotal phase three of Indian polls
When India goes to the polls Monday in the third round of general elections, the focus will be on the key ballots of Muslim voters, analysts say.Voting will take place in 11 states where there are large Muslim populations whose votes could decide the outcome, either by allowing ruling Hindu nationalists to make new inroads or staying loyal to the Congress and regional parties."This phase is the real election," political analyst Yashwant Deshmukh said.The...
Indian Polls: Financial Express:
‘US Media Manages To Look At Lighter Side Of Elections’
Even as all news and current affairs channels continue to focus on the ongoing elections, BBC is planning a series on the global significance of the polls. BBC’s India correspondent Sanjeev Srivastava, leading the channel’s election coverage, recently travelled across America to find out how it views the world’s biggest democracy going to polls. The following are the excerpts from his talk with Nivedita Mookerji: How exactly is the US looking at the Indian...
Indian Polls: Mega-democracy a miracle of logistics
NO one understands the hardships of organising the world's biggest exercise in electoral democracy better than Arun Baroke. Mr Baroke, district commissioner in the Himalayan town of Bomdila, sent off a fourmember team for a perilous trek to the remote village of Thaku last week so that its three registered voters could exercise their franchise.If snows don't block the passes, the team -a presiding officer, a polling officer, a security guard and an attendant to...