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Millions vote as India ends monthlong elections
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-13 22:26 NEW DELHI -- Millions of Indians voted Wednesday in the final phase of the country's monthlong national election, amid an economic downturn and a deeply fractured political scene. More than 100 million voters across nine states were eligible to vote Wednesday for 86 seats in India's 543-seat lower house of parliament. It was the final day of voting in an election in which 714 million voters are eligible to cast their ballots at more than 828,000 polling stations.
Results of the election were not to be announced until Saturday, but Indian media reports said exit polls indicated the ruling Congress party-led coalition was narrowly ahead of the opposition Hindu-nationalist alliance.
Election polling has a poor history in India. Most polls in the last national election, in 2004, turned out to be wrong. On Wednesday, some TV stations were broadcasting the predictions of gambling bookies, with one regularly flashing expected results under what it called its Poll-O-Meter. According to the constitution, a new parliament has to be in place by June 2. Most observers expect a splintered vote will force leaders to form an unwieldy coalition in New Delhi. The election has been fought largely on local issues as no resonant, central themes emerged in the long campaign. Security was tight across north India, where more than 68,000 paramilitary soldiers were deployed, and Kashmir, where separatists have called for a boycott of the polls. Violent protests erupted in the Kashmiri village of Seelu after rock-throwing villagers said Indian soldiers had beaten locals for not voting. Troops firing into the air dispersed the crowds. One polling official was injured when he was hit by a rock and a police vehicle was burned, said B. Srinivas, a top police officer in the state. There were also protests at four other polling places, and police detained at least seven people, Srinivas said. At least four policemen were injured Tuesday night when anti-election protesters hurled rocks and set fire to a police vehicle in Baramulla, a town 35 miles (55 kilometers) north of Indian Kashmir's main city Srinagar. Suspected rebels also lobbed two grenades at polling booths the previous night, the officer said. In the eastern state of West Bengal, one person died in a bomb attack that police suspect was tied to the elections, said senior police official Raj Kanojia. Tens of thousands of security force personnel fanned across the West Bengal districts that were voting to prevent the clashes that marred the last round of polls in the state. The only southern state to vote Wednesday was Tamil Nadu, which had 39 seats up for grabs and is an important battleground for the ruling Congress party and its leading rival, the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party. The state's crucial election issue has been the plight of Tamil civilians caught in the brutal Sri Lankan war, with the leading candidates vowing various degrees of support. |
