New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi while inviting the P20 representatives to watch the general elections to be held next year said that 100 crore voters are going to vote in this election.
“I extend an advance invitation to all of you delegates at the P-20 summit to watch the general elections next year,” the Prime Minister said at the ninth P20 summit of parliamentary chairpersons of the G20 countries at the Yasobhoomi Convention Center on Friday.
Modi said that India’s parliamentary processes have continuously improved over time and have become more powerful. In India, people consider general elections as the biggest festival. Since independence in 1947, 17 general elections and more than 300 state assembly elections have been held in India. India not only conducts the world’s largest elections, but people’s participation in it is continuously increasing. He said, “In the 2019 general elections, the countrymen have made my party victorious for the second consecutive time. The general elections of 2019 were the largest democratic process in human history. More than 60 crore voters took part in it. You can imagine, then there were 91 crore registered voters in India. This is more than the total population of entire Europe. The turn-out of around 70 per cent of the total registered voters in India shows the high level of trust people have in the parliamentary process in India and an important factor in this was the highest participation of women. Indian women voted in record numbers in the 2019 general elections. Not only in numbers, but also in terms of political representation, there will be no example in the world like India’s elections.
He said that more than 600 political parties had participated in the 2019 general elections. More than one crore government employees did election work in these elections. More than 10 lakh polling stations were set up in the country for the elections.
The Prime Minister said that with time India has also integrated the electoral process with modern technology. India has been using electronic voting machines (EPM) for about 25 years. The use of EVMs has increased both transparency and efficiency in the electoral process. In India, election results come within hours of the counting of votes starting.
He said that India has recently taken a big decision to give 33 percent reservation to women in its Parliament and state assemblies. There are more than 32 lakh elected representatives in local bodies in India. Of these, about 50 percent are women representatives. India today is promoting women’s participation in every field.
