ID :
55665
Wed, 04/15/2009 - 19:40
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/55665
The shortlink copeid
INDIA TESTS DEMOCRACY AT POLL BOOTHS TOMORROW
By P. Vijian
NEW DELHI, April 15 (Bernama) -- India's largest democracy in the world will
be put to test when nearly 710 million people exercise their rights by casting
votes in the five-phased national elections, beginning Thursday.
After weeks of political wrangling, mud slinging, hate speeches compounded
by two politically-motivated murders, the heated campaigns across India ended
yesterday - perhaps, the most sullied campaigns in the highly
politically-sensitised society.
"It's election fever all around, Indian democracy is a vibrant one as
compared to some countries where elections are stage-managed.
"Here, it is hard fought. It is a remarkable exhibition of democratic
politics.
"Like any other election, this is an important one when the economy and
security are of real concern. The new government has to grapple with it," B. G.
Verghese, a visiting professor from the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research,
told Bernama.
Behind a milieu of threatening economic slowdown, growing security risks,
deepening communal divide despite India's secularism, caste-based politics and
pressing rural poverty, Indians would decide the future political leadership of
Asia's third largest economy over the next one month in the staggered-elections
that end on May 13.
Rural and urban voters need to pick a stable pragmatic government that
could steer India's modernisation policies, bolster foreign relations, stablise
the volatile South Asia region that is crucial for global peace, and ensure
India, as a world's growing economic powerhouse, is able to throw its weight in
the international arena.
However, the government has been unimpressive in the past.
The first phase of the 15th Lok Sabha or the Lower House election, to elect
the 543 parliamentarians, is scheduled to kick off in Aurnachal Pradesh, Andaman
and Nicobar Island, Chhatisgarh, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya. Mizoram and
Nagaland Thursday morning.
Over 800,000 polling booths, plus over six million security personnel are
fanned out across the country for the mammoth election.
About 1.3 million electronic machines are installed for the polls and four
million staff hired to manage the world's largest elections.
-- BERNAMA
NEW DELHI, April 15 (Bernama) -- India's largest democracy in the world will
be put to test when nearly 710 million people exercise their rights by casting
votes in the five-phased national elections, beginning Thursday.
After weeks of political wrangling, mud slinging, hate speeches compounded
by two politically-motivated murders, the heated campaigns across India ended
yesterday - perhaps, the most sullied campaigns in the highly
politically-sensitised society.
"It's election fever all around, Indian democracy is a vibrant one as
compared to some countries where elections are stage-managed.
"Here, it is hard fought. It is a remarkable exhibition of democratic
politics.
"Like any other election, this is an important one when the economy and
security are of real concern. The new government has to grapple with it," B. G.
Verghese, a visiting professor from the Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research,
told Bernama.
Behind a milieu of threatening economic slowdown, growing security risks,
deepening communal divide despite India's secularism, caste-based politics and
pressing rural poverty, Indians would decide the future political leadership of
Asia's third largest economy over the next one month in the staggered-elections
that end on May 13.
Rural and urban voters need to pick a stable pragmatic government that
could steer India's modernisation policies, bolster foreign relations, stablise
the volatile South Asia region that is crucial for global peace, and ensure
India, as a world's growing economic powerhouse, is able to throw its weight in
the international arena.
However, the government has been unimpressive in the past.
The first phase of the 15th Lok Sabha or the Lower House election, to elect
the 543 parliamentarians, is scheduled to kick off in Aurnachal Pradesh, Andaman
and Nicobar Island, Chhatisgarh, Kerala, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya. Mizoram and
Nagaland Thursday morning.
Over 800,000 polling booths, plus over six million security personnel are
fanned out across the country for the mammoth election.
About 1.3 million electronic machines are installed for the polls and four
million staff hired to manage the world's largest elections.
-- BERNAMA
