900 million voters, 11 million poll workers, 1 million polling booths
INDIA’S GENERAL ELECTION
NEW DELHI — The figures involved in India’s general election are staggering: 900 million voters, 83 million first-time voters, 11 million poll workers, nearly four million electronic voting machines, one million polling booths and 570 special trains for migrant labourers and security personnel.
Such numbers convey the scale of the world’s biggest democratic exercise. But it’s smaller numbers that show India’s commitment to reach every voter, no matter how remote.
In India’s six-week marathon election that began last week, the Election Commission has ruled that no voter should have to travel more than two kilometres from their home to cast a ballot, whether they live on a Himalayan peak or an island in the Bay of Bengal.
The polling booth in Gir Forest National Park in Gujarat is set up for the sole human inhabitant, a Hindu priest who lives among the lions. Polling officials hike for a whole day to reach the remote village of Malogam in Arunachal Pradesh, where just one woman is registered to vote.
Poll workers must be in superb physical condition to cross mountains, rivers, deserts, forests and national parks. The work entails arduous journeys by train, road, helicopter and boat, accompanied by porters who carry the briefcase-sized voting machines, registers, ink and other election paraphernalia on their backs.
In Arunachal Pradesh, a state in India’s northeast that borders Bhutan, China and Myanmar, most polling stations are in dense, Himalayan forest.
Poll workers set off a week before the vote last Thursday.
Majestic gorges were crossed on casually strung, flimsy bamboo suspension bridges that wobble like jelly in strong winds. The team travelled with torches, water filters and emergency lights, and a local guide who knows the jungle.
“These are not Alpine tracks. These are sub-tropical forests with thick undergrowth. There is no stated rule, but we prefer people under 45 because a lot of stamina and energy are required,” said Kaling Tayeng, the chief electoral officer of Arunachal Pradesh.
The marathon expedition to Gandhigram was all for 242 voters.
In the Ladakh region of Indiancontrolled Kashmir in the north, a polling station at an altitude of 4,327 metres is being set up for only 12 voters.
Another Ladakh station, Anlay Pho, is so high at 4,500 metres above sea level that polling teams must carry oxygen tanks.
When Winston Churchill described India as a “geographical expression” no more a united nation than the equator, he was speaking to the diversity in landscapes.
At the other extreme of the country are the low-lying Andaman and Nicobar Islands where voting machines were transported by various seafaring vessels.
The polling station at Pilopatia, just 9.7 metres above sea level, is famous for the trouble it presents election officials.
Officials start off on a 24-hour ship journey from Port Blair, then by speedboat, then dinghy and, finally, by a “hodi,” or traditional boat used by the local tribe, said Dr. Monica Priyadarshini, a Nicobar district election officer.
“In places, the waters are infested with crocodiles and sea snakes,” Priyadarshini said.
The voting machines were protected inside waterproof boxes. The journey ended with a splash: Priyadarshini and the team clambered out and waded through waist-high water to reach the shore. All this for just nine voters.
Many polling booths in remote areas have no mobile connectivity. Here too, the team had to use wireless sets and satellite phones to send the commission’s mandated twice-hourly polling reports.
“I never had any idea of the work that goes into ensuring that every single vote is cast,” Priyadarshini said.
Often, it can be both geography and ideology that presents problems.
Last week, insurgents attacked a convoy of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, killing a state party lawmaker and four other people in his vehicle with an improvised explosive device.
“We had 100 high security zones that are very dangerous. In some of them, over 100 security personnel accompanied just 20 polling officials to secure their path through the forest,” said Chhattisgarh police chief Durgesh Kumar Awasthi. “My men haven’t slept for days.”