In the Indian election, 700m voters, 28 days, 250,000 police: world's biggest democratic poll begins

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When voters in parts of central and eastern India go to the polls today it will mark the start of the largest democratic ballot in history, a rolling wave of voting in five phases that will stretch over a month and demand formidable security measures, given the twin threats posed by Maoist rebels and jihadi terrorists.

To get some idea of the scale consider this: 43 million citizens, more than the adult population of England, have been added to the electoral roll since 2004. More than a million electronic voting machines are to be deployed at 828,000 polling stations. No voter will be more than 2km from a ballot box.

Elections can be violent. In the first phase of polls five years ago more than 20 people died. Although the central government has a million-man army, most election security is handled by a 250,000-strong paramilitary force.

In the light of the terrorist attack in Mumbai last year election policing has been beefed up, and the Indian Premier League, the Twenty20 cricket competition, has been shifted to South Africa as it clashed with the polls.

Ever since the Congress party and the Gandhi family lost their grip on power in 1989 no single party has been able to run India. At the last election the Congress party took only 145 seats out of 543, with 26% of the vote. It took office by sharing power with partners.

Despite the arrival of coalition politics, turnout has remained stable at around 60% and poor minorities are more likely to vote than anyone else.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/16/indian-election-congress-polling

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