India Holds the Largest and Longest Election in the World
As many as 970 million Indian citizens will elect a new leader. About 140 million voters are aged 18-22 years.
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Supporters of the opposition party, the Indian National Congress, brought several posters of the party leader, Rahul Gandhi, during the campaign in Mumbai, India on Sunday (17/3/2024).
DELHI, THURSDAY — India is preparing to hold general elections with the largest capacity in the world. A number of criticisms were leveled at the government, ranging from blocking political posts on social media to diaspora communities not being able to access the General Election Committee website.
The general election (pemilu) in India began on Friday (19/4/2024) and will last for six weeks until June 1. Vote counting is scheduled for June 4.
India has a population of 1.4 billion people, with 970 million eligible voters. As a comparison, the Southeast Asian region, consisting of 10 countries including Indonesia, has a combined population of 550 million people.
Also read: Young Indian Voters: Highly Educated, Unemployed and Angry
The democratic party in India is held in 21 states, each region having a population with diverse religious, ethnic, caste and economic backgrounds. Among the voters, 140 million are young people aged 18-22.
President Joko Widodo shook hands with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the sidelines of the G20 high-level conference in New Delhi on September 9, 2023.
In India, elections are held to elect 543 members of parliament. It is possible for the party winning the election to form a coalition to form a government. The prime minister is selected from within the coalition. Since 2014, incumbent Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has won elections. As of 2024, he will have served 10 years or two terms leading the world's most populous country.
Modi has received a lot of criticism from home and abroad over the past few years. The reason is, the Bharata Janatiya Party (BJP) government is very populist to the point of being extreme right. They want India to be an exclusively Hindu country.
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As a result, there have been many cases of mass violence against minority groups, including Muslims and ethnic minorities in northern states. India's citizenship law, for example, explicitly states that immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan can obtain Indian citizenship as long as they are not Muslim.
Voters are split
These various discriminatory regulations have triggered demonstrations which often end in violence and even death. Protests against the law ended in the deaths of 21 protesters, as reported in the February 26, 2020 edition of the Guardian newspaper. Despite this criticism, Modi remains popular among Indian society at large.
A female student painted her face with the Indian flag as part of a voter education campaign ahead of the Indian elections that will commence on 19 April 2024 in Chennai, India, on 19 March 2024.
"I do not like the various discriminatory rules issued by Modi. However, Modi has proven to be able to advance India's economy," said Abhishek Dhotre (22), the first-time voter. He admits that he will still choose Modi and the BJP for those economic reasons.
Based on World Bank data, as of December 2023, India's gross domestic product (GDP) has increased by 8.4 percent. India has successfully overtaken the UK as the fifth largest economy in the world. However, this has not been accompanied by job creation. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), 29 percent of graduates in India are unemployed.
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If the ILO data is looked at on a larger scale in 2022, unemployed youth make up 83 percent of the total unemployed population in India. This has caused anger among young people. The ILO report even states that the majority of the unemployed with an education are in urban areas. However, urban areas have always been associated as centers for smart and career-oriented individuals.
Economic advisor to the Government of India, V Anantha Nageswaran, explained in the Hindustan Times newspaper, March 27 2024, that the unemployment rate cannot be blamed on the government to find a solution. "The largest labor market is in the private sector. "They should open more vacancies," he said.
Protesters hold banners that read "No farmers, no food" while participating in a national strike in Jammu, India, on December 8, 2020.
In April 2022, the BBC covered the issue of unemployment in India. One of the sources was a law graduate who was forced to become a bajaj driver. He was unable to find work that matched his educational background, and white-collar jobs were also out of reach for him. Ultimately, he had to take on a blue-collar job.
Among farmers, Modi is likely to lose. This is because in 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Indian government issued new regulations regarding free markets that include agricultural products. Farmers are angry because they are threatened with becoming even poorer if the regulation is implemented.
Farmers are the backbone of this country. There's no way I can vote for people who don't respect farmers.
Farmers marched to New Delhi and blocked roads with tractors. The demonstration also ended in riots with the arrest of a number of farmers. Based on facts collected by the Times of India, November 19 2021, the demonstration lasted for 359 days. As many as 700 people died due to clashes, contracting Covid-19, or exhaustion. The government finally revoked the regulations that cornered farmers.
Indian Congress Party politician, Abishek Bannerjee (on the right), danced on stage during a campaign in front of supporters in Kolkata, India on March 10, 2024.
Gurpartap Singh (22), a wheat farmer, stated that he will not choose Modi. "Farmers are the backbone of this country. It is impossible for me to choose people who do not appreciate farmers," he said.
Also read: Will the trend of Populist leaders gradually rise?
Blockade
Guardian, 18 April 2024, reported that the government asked social media X to block a number of posts of a political nature. The reason is so as not to interfere with the running of the election. This blockade was protested by the public because it was considered to hinder democracy and press freedom. India is ranked 161st out of 180 countries in the Press Freedom Index.
The official website of the Indian Election Commission (ECI) is also inaccessible. As a result, Indian diaspora scattered around the world cannot register to vote at the Indian embassy in the country they are in. (AFP)
