Page 24 - Election News

Lok Sabha elections 2024: Congress, DMK finalise seat-sharing in Tamil Nadu

DMK will contest in 22 seats; Congress 9 seats; VC, CPI and CPIM will contest 2 seats each, while MDMK and IUML will contest 1 seat each

Lok Sabha elections 2024: EC orders removal of home secretaries in 6 states

The Election Commission has ordered the removal of home secretaries in 6 states and Director General of Police (DGP) of West Bengal

Elections 2024: Electoral bonds may not be Opposition's core campaign issue

Without establishing quid pro quo and given their own handicaps, it is unlikely the Opposition parties can present an effective narrative about 'corruption' involving electoral bonds to the voters

Lok Sabha elections: Polling to be held in 7 phases, result on June 4

Voting will begin on April 19 till June 1 in seven phases. The counting of votes will take place on June 4

Lok Sabha elections 2024 Phase 3: Voting on May 7, full details here

94 constituencies in 12 states and Union territories will go to polls in the third phase of the 2024 general elections

LS polls highlights: Nitish elected unopposed to Bihar Legislative Council

Lok Sabha polls 2024 updates: Catch all the latest updates on the General Elections here

Portugal election wields no winner amid support for surging populist party

Portugal's political future is hanging in the balance after a general election Sunday, with two moderate mainstream parties closely contesting the race and set to wait weeks for a decision on the winner after an unprecedented surge in support for a populist party that finished third. The center-right Social Democrat-led Democratic Alliance won 79 seats in the 230-seat National Assembly, Portugal's Parliament, after all votes cast in Portugal were counted. The center-left Socialist Party, in power the past eight years, got 77 seats. The deciding votes will come from voters abroad to distrubte the final four parliamentary seats after an election night full of suspense. That count could take more than two weeks. The hard-right Chega (Enough) party came in third with 48 seats, a milestone result that presented an unprecedented challenge to politics-as-usual, underscoring a drift to the right in the European Union. Smaller parties took the rest of the vote in an election that saw turno

Two election commissioners likely to be appointed by March 15: Report

Two election commissioners are likely to be appointed by March 15 to fill the vacancies created by the retirement of Anup Chandra Pandey and the surprise resignation of Arun Goel, sources said on Sunday. Days before the poll panel is expected to announce the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls, Goel resigned on Friday morning. His resignation was accepted by President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday and the Law Ministry issued a notification to announce it. This leaves Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar as the sole member of the poll authority. Pandey had demitted office on February 14 on attaining the age of 65 years. A search committee under Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and comprising the Home Secretary and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) Secretary will first prepare two separate panels of five names each for the two posts. Later, a selection committee headed by the prime minister and comprising a Union minister and Leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha Ad

Nepal PM 'Prachanda' to seek third vote of confidence by March 13

Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' is seeking to hold his third vote of confidence in Parliament by March 13, days after he forged a new alliance with the CPN-UML, a media report said on Saturday. The third round of vote of confidence comes after Prachanda, a former guerilla leader, dumped the Nepali Congress and forged a new alliance with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) the second-biggest party led by former premier KP Sharma Oli on Monday. During a parliamentary party meeting held on Saturday, the prime minister discussed the matter with his Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre), indicating his readiness to seek a vote of confidence by March 13, Nepalese news portal, khabarhub.com reported. The CPN (Maoist Centre) also issued a whip to its lawmakers, instructing them not to leave the Kathmandu Valley in the days leading up to the election of the National Assembly Chairman and the anticipated date for Prachanda's floor test, the repor

People displaced by Manipur violence to vote at special polling stations

Special polling stations will be set up at relief camps to enable people displaced due to the ethnic strife in Manipur to cast their votes in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, an official statement said. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued directions in this regard, the statement issued by the state Chief Electoral Officer on Friday said. "A large number of electors registered in several parts of the state were displaced from their native places during the conflict that started on May 3, 2023. Presently, they are residing in relief camps in various districts. The displaced electors are still enrolled at the places where they were residents before the conflict started," it stated. "The ECI, after due consultation with the central and state governments, has directed that all such displaced persons who had to leave their native places during the conflict shall continue to be borne on the electoral rolls of the assembly and parliamentary constituencies concerned in the ...

Pakistan dismisses US directions on probing alleged election rigging

Pakistan has dismissed the US suggestion to probe discrepancies in the February 8 general elections, asserting that it will not succumb to external dictates. Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch in her weekly press address on Friday categorically said that "no country could give directions" to Pakistan, an independent and sovereign nation. We believe in our own sovereign right to make decisions about Pakistan's internal affairs, Dawn News quoted Baloch as saying in reply to the comments made by her US counterpart regarding allegations of misconduct in the controversy-marred general elections. Earlier this week, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said any claims of interference or fraud should be fully and transparently investigated per Pakistan's laws and procedures. On another occasion, Miller said: Concerning investigations into reported irregularities, we want to see those investigations proceed [and] wrapped up as soon as possible.

LS Polls: U'khand CEO orders increased monitoring of liquor sales, seizures

The CEO also directed that the sudden increase in liquor sales should be monitored by analyzing the daily sales in liquor shops for the last two years

PM chairs CEC meet in Delhi to finalise 1st list of candidates for LS polls

At the meeting, Party President JP Nadda along with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and representatives and Chief Ministers of 16 states are present

Biden, Trump tour US-Mexico border, highlight immigration as election issue

Three hundred miles apart, President Joe Biden and likely Republican challenger Donald Trump walked the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas Thursday, dueling trips underscoring how important immigration has become for the 2024 election and how much each man wants to use it to his advantage. Each chose an optimal location to make his points, their schedules remarkably similar. They each got a briefing on operations and issues, walked along the border and gave remarks that overlapped. But that's where the comparisons ended. Biden, who sought to spotlight how Republicans tanked a bipartisan border security deal on Trump's orders, went to the Rio Grande Valley city of Brownsville. For nine years, this was the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, but they have dropped sharply in recent months. The president walked a quiet stretch of the border along the Rio Grande, and received a lengthy operations briefing from Homeland Security agents who talked to him bluntly about what more they needed.

Law panel likely to propose 'one nation, one election' by mid-2029

The Law Commission is likely to recommend adding a new chapter to the Constitution on 'one nation, one election' and holding the gigantic democratic exercise of simultaneous polls for Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies across the country by mid-2029, sources said on Wednesday. The Commission, under Justice (retd) Ritu Raj Awasthi, would recommend an amendment to the Constitution to add the "new chapter or part" on simultaneous elections, the sources said. The panel would also recommend synchronising the terms of legislative assemblies in "three phases" in the next five years so that the first simultaneous polls could be held in May-June 2029 when elections for the 19th Lok Sabha are due. The new chapter in the Constitution would include issues related to "simultaneous election", "sustainability of simultaneous elections" and "common electoral roll" for Lok Sabha, state legislative assemblies, panchayats and municipalities so that the three-tier simultaneous polls could be

Rajya Sabha polls highlights: BJP wins 8 seats out of 10 in UP

Rajya Sabha polls latest updates: Catch all the latest news on the Rajya Sabha elections here

No cross-voting will be done: BJP hopeful to win Himachal Pradesh RS polls

Voting for 56 Rajya Sabha seats from 15 states, which are falling vacant in April, will be held today

AAP-Congress alliance: Faisal Patel firm on contesting Bharuch Seat

Patel stated that he has no intention of exploring parties outside the Congress and hopes the party will reconsider the seat, which has been allocated to the AAP

Seeking to plug loopholes, ECI tweaks policy on transfer of officers

The Election Commission has asked states to ensure that officers who are transferred out of a district ahead of polls as part of its policy are not posted in any district within the same parliamentary constituency. By tweaking its policy on transferring officers ahead of elections, the EC has sought to plug loopholes being exploited by state governments. The move comes after the poll authority took "serious note" of cases in which officers were being transferred in adjacent districts within the same parliamentary constituency by state governments. According to the policy of the Election Commission (EC), all officers who were either posted in their home district or have completed three years at a place are transferred out ahead of Lok Sabha or assembly polls to ensure they do not disturb the level-playing field in favour of a candidate or a party. "...the commission has strengthened its existing transfer policy to ensure that officials are not able to disturb the level-playing field

Lok Sabha elections: AAP to contest 4 seats in Delhi, Congress 3

The AAP will contest four Lok Sabha seats in Delhi and the Congress three, the parties said on Saturday as they announced their seat-sharing arrangements for the national capital, Gujarat, Goa and Haryana. There are seven parliamentary constituencies in Delhi and all were won by the BJP in the 2019 polls. Addressing a joint press conference here, Congress leader Mukul Wasnik announced that the AAP will contest the New Delhi, the West Delhi, the South Delhi and the East Delhi seats, while his party the Chandni Chowk, the Northeast Delhi and the Northwest Delhi seats. "In Gujarat, the AAP will contest from Bharuch and Bhavnagar, while the Congress will field its candidates from the remaining 24 seats in the state. In Haryana, the AAP will contest the Lok Sabha polls from Kurukshetra. The Congress will contest both the Lok Sabha seats in Goa," he said. The Congress will also contest the lone seat in Chandigarh, Wasnik said. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sandeep Pathak said the AAP and