7-phase Lok Sabha elections to begin on April 11; counting on May 23: EC

new delhi — India announced on Sunday a general election to be held over nearly six weeks starting on April 11, when hundreds of millions of voters will cast ballots in the world’s biggest democracy.

The poll will see right-wing Prime Minister Narendra Modi run for a second term against Rahul Gandhi of the GandhiNehru dynasty to lead the world’s second-most populous nation.

Some 900 million voters from the Himalayan peaks to the deserts and tropical shores are eligible to vote for a new government for the next five years in an enormous democratic undertaking.

From April 11 to May 19 voters will elect 543 lawmakers to India’s lower house of parliament, the Lok Sabha, which governs the Asian nation of 1.25 billion people from the capital New Delhi, the electoral commission said on Sunday.

Counting will be completed and results announced on May 23, it said.

Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said the model code of conduct would come into immediate effect from Sunday and one million polling stations would be set up this time as against about nine lakhs in 2014.

Announcing the schedule for 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission said the ‘voter verifiable paper audit trail’ (VVPAT) will be used in all polling stations this time.

Among other things, the model code of conduct bars the government from announcing any policy move that may impact voters’ decision.

Arora said all political advertisements on social media will need pre-certification.

In 2014, the Lok Sabha elections were held across nine phases, beginning on April 7 and ending on May 9. The counting of votes took place on May 16.

The festival of democracy. Elections are here

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister