Elections

Former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa flags personalisation of the state, threats to federalism and a 'might is right' approach as challenges to democracy

The Election Commission (EC) has initiated renewed efforts to reach out to Gen Alpha and Z ahead of the 2029 Lok Sabha polls to make them aware voters who are well-acquainted with the electoral process and can lead future campaigns to educate people. As part of its revamped campaign, the poll authority will target schoolchildren from classes 9 to 12, colleges and universities across the 4,123 assembly constituencies of India. According to EC officials, there are a total of 14.78 crore people in the 18-26 age group, including 7.98 crore males, 6.79 crore females and 9,000 third gender. The poll authority plans to set up 50,000 Electoral Literacy Clubs (ELCs) with 10 such bodies per assembly constituency, the officials said. For this, it will contact students of classes 9 to 12 in 15 lakh schools. Besides, it will reach out to 70,000 colleges and 1,400 universities. ELCs were set up in 2018 as part of the Systematic Voters' Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) programme to

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Election Commission (EC) to submit data on the pendency and disposal of appeals by tribunals challenging exclusion or inclusion in electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in West Bengal, observing that they need to be adjudicated in a time-bound manner. A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana asked the poll panel to explain what steps are being taken to streamline the mechanism for disposing of pending appeals and how many additional tribunals are required. "Let the Election Commission file a reply specifying how many appeals are pending before Tribunals. The pending appeals be segregated, and it may be disclosed as to how many appeals at the instance of voters who were excluded/included or their cross appeals," it said. The EC will also explain how many additional tribunals are required to be constituted, the bench said. During the hearing, senior advocate Kalyan Banerjee, appear

From cartoons and songs to viral memes, ridicule can become a potent political weapon, damaging reputations in ways that carefully crafted campaigns often cannot

Conditions of extreme fluidity hang over Punjab as the weather cools but election fever hots up

The Election Commission has revised the schedule for the ongoing SIR exercise in Odisha, giving voters an additional fortnight to file claims and objections, and pushing the final publication of the electoral rolls to September 21, according to a notification. The last date for filing claims and objections has been extended from August 4 to August 19, according to the notification issued by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on Friday. Consequently, the period for issuing notices, scrutiny of applications, hearings and disposal of claims and objections has also been extended from the earlier September 2 deadline to September 17. The final electoral roll, originally scheduled to be published on September 6, will now be released on September 21. July 1, 2026, will continue to be the qualifying date for the revision exercise. The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, which included house-to-house enumeration between May 30 and June 28, led to the exclusion of around 20.14 lakh ...

The MEA said the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir elections are an attempt to camouflage Islamabad's illegal occupation and conceal alleged human rights violations

The draft electoral roll will be published on July 31 as the first phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has been completed in Haryana. Haryana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) A Sreenivas said here on Saturday that 20,629 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) distributed enumeration forms to more than 2.06 crore electors, out of which about 1.72 crore enumeration forms have been digitised. However, the names of over 33.84 lakh could not be recorded. Of these, nearly 13.75 lakh had permanently shifted, 7.66 lakh were found to have passed away, 2.04 lakh were already registered as electors, 9.36 lakh were found absent, while nearly 1 lakh electors did not submit their enumeration forms due to other reasons. Sreenivas said the draft electoral roll will be published on July 31 and will be made available on the official website and at all designated publication centres. He said that claims and objections may be filed from July 31 to August 30. If the name of any elector does not appear in the .

The Election Commission believes that if Parliament passes the law in 2028, it can conduct 'One Nation One Election' from 2029

Election Commission extends Delhi's Special Intensive Revision schedule, with the final electoral rolls now set to be published on October 19

Conservative outsider Abelardo de la Espriella, a millionaire political neophyte, will be Colombia's next president after electoral authorities on Wednesday declared him the winner of Sunday's runoff election. The businessman and lawyer, whose ventures include a clothing line, wine and rum brands, and a restaurant, earned US President Donald Trump's endorsement despite never having run for office. He defeated progressive lawmaker Ivan Cepeda by 1 percentage point, or more than 251,000 votes. The result effectively was an indictment of outgoing President Gustavo Petro's government, whose policies Cepeda had promised to continue, including a largely failed effort to establish dialogue with multiple armed groups. Electoral authorities published all but a fraction of the vote count hours after polls closed Sunday. Petro and Cepeda did not accept those results, with the latter saying he would wait for a recount to do so. Authorities finished the recount before declaring de la Espriella's

Labour's Andy Burnham, the current mayor of Greater Manchester, has won a special election for a seat in Parliament that puts him in a position to challenge embattled Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Burnham won the seat of Makerfield in northwest England over Rob Kenyon of the anti-immigration party Reform UK. The victory announced Friday cements the status of Burnham as the leading contender to replace Starmer as leader of the Labour Party and the country. Burnham has pledged that "if people put their trust in me, I will change politics" - a big promise for a politician who is just one of 650 lawmakers in the House of Commons. He said he would take the fight for change "as high as I can possibly take it." Starmer's popularity has cratered since he led the centre-left Labour Party to a landslide election victory in July 2024. He has struggled to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living, and been hamstrung by repeated missteps, ...

Elections in India have become fertile ground for the proliferation of freebies

As cash-transfer politics becomes embedded in elections, the bigger challenge for states may lie not in announcing welfare promises, but in sustaining them fiscally

From Himanta Biswa Sarma to Gaurav Gogoi, here is how top leaders are faring as counting of votes continues for the Assam Assembly election

A decade-long review of exit polls highlights systemic inaccuracies in key states, with non-response bias emerging as a major challenge for pollsters

The current round of Assembly polls in four states -- Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal -- and the Union Territory of Puducherry concluded on Wednesday evening

TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on Saturday claimed that the BJP has deployed its entire machinery to defeat the regional party in the West Bengal assembly elections as almost the entire Union cabinet and CMs of NDA-ruled states are camping in the poll-bound state. Addressing an election rally at Uttarpara in Hooghly district, Banerjee accused the BJP of giving false promises to migrant workers from West Bengal employed outside the state. "The BJP is desperate, with 50 helicopters flying into West Bengal as almost the entire Union cabinet, from the PM to home, railway and defence ministers, as well as CMs of 19 NDA-ruled states camping in a single state West Bengal," the chief minister said. Compare this with only three helicopters being used by the TMC to campaign across the state. But all this hype and sound and fury will end in a whimper on May 4, she said. "On top of this, we are seeing central forces wherever we are going. They are bringing in armoured vehicles which are not put to

Digital campaign budgets surge and recede in lockstep with state and national election cycles

Bulgarians are heading to the polls on Sunday for the eighth time in five years, hoping to finally elect a parliament able to resolve the longtime political impasse that has gripped this Balkan country. The snap vote follows the resignation of a conservative-led government amid nationwide protests last December that drew hundreds of thousands, mainly young people, to the streets. The protesters called for an independent judiciary to tackle widespread corruption. Since 2021, the nation of 6.5 million has struggled with fragmented parliaments that produced weak governments, none of which managed to survive more than a year before being brought down by street protests or backroom deals in parliament. The revolving door of governments has fostered widespread public mistrust, voter apathy and a shrinking turnout in elections. Still, Sunday's vote is significant as it could bring to power a left-leaning, pro-Russian former president - just days after Hungarian voters rejected the ...