Page 8 - Elections

Delhi elections 2025: How to search and download voter slip on mobile phone

The voter information slip (VIS), commonly known as the voter slip, contains information about an eligible voter, including their name, age, gender, assembly constituency, and polling station details

European Union rejects election in Belarus, threatens new sanctions

The European Union rejected the election in Belarus on Sunday as illegitimate and threatened new sanctions. Belarus held an orchestrated vote virtually guaranteed to give 70-year-old autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko yet another term on top of his three decades in power. Today's sham election in Belarus has been neither free, nor fair, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos said in a joint statement. The relentless and unprecedented repression of human rights, restrictions to political participation and access to independent media in Belarus, have deprived the electoral process of any legitimacy," Kallas and Kos said. They urged the Belarusian government to release political prisoners, estimating their number at more than 1,000, including an employee of the EU delegation in Belarus' capital, Minsk. Kallas and Kos said that the decision to invite observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe only 10 days ago ..

Delhi polls: Over 700 Model Code violations reported till January 25

More than 700 cases of alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) have so far been registered ahead of the February 5 Delhi Assembly polls, an official said on Friday. The cases were lodged between January 7, when the MCC into force, and January 25. A total of 21,841 people were arrested under various legal provisions, including those under the Excise Act, during this period, according to a statement. Ahead of the polls, police have intensified vigilance at border checkpoints and conducted crackdowns on illegal activities, including the smuggling of arms, liquor and drugs. Delhi Police has recorded 718 cases of alleged MCC violations and confiscated 348 illegal firearms and 439 cartridges, the statement said. It has also seized 57,504 litres of liquor worth more than Rs 1.7 crore, 155.08 kg of drugs worth over Rs 72 crore and more than 1,200 banned injections. Law enforcement agencies have also seized Rs 6.19 crore in cash and 37.39 kg of silver, the statement said. Po

India nears 1 bn voters, with youth, women driving electoral growth: EC

The number of voters in India now stands at 99.1 crore, up from 96.88 crore when the Lok Sabha elections were held last year, the Election Commission (EC) said on Wednesday. In a statement issued ahead of National Voters' Day, the EC said the electoral rolls bear a youthful and gender-balanced look with 21.7 crore young electors in the 18-29 age group and a six-point increase in electoral gender ratio from 948 in 2024 to 954 in 2025. National Voters' Day is celebrated on January 25 every year to mark the foundation day of the EC, which was established on this day in 1950. Addressing a press conference here on January 7 to announce the Delhi assembly poll schedule, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said India would soon create a new record of one billion-plus voters. "Electoral rolls were released yesterday (January 6). We are crossing 99 crore voters... We are going to be a nation of one billion voters very soon, which will be another record in voting," he said. "After

Delhi Elections 2025: AAP vs BJP vs Cong; who promised what?

As Delhi gears up for Assembly elections on 5th February, the political heat is rising. It's a 3-way contest between AAP, BJP, and Congress. What are the three parties promising this time?

TikTok meddled in various elections, including India's, say US Senators

Ahead of a looming ban on TikTok in the United States, US senators have alleged that the Chinese Communist Party-owned platform has interfered in the elections of various countries, including India. A group of lawmakers has called for extending the deadline to shut it down. Participating in a debate on TikTok, the lawmakers also applauded India's ban on the social media platform which is highly popular among teenagers and youths. As per a law signed by President Joe Biden a year ago, TikTok faces a ban from US app stores unless the Chinese parent company ByteDance Ltd. divests its American arm by Sunday, January 19. TikTok meddles in the politics of other countries by amplifying divisive content in for instance, Israel, India and of course America. Don't forget that TikTok harvests a vast trove of user data including name age, email address, phone number, credit card number, facial features, voice prints, keystrokes photos, videos and viewing habits, Senator Tom Cotton said on the .

Matter 'closed', says IT House panel chief Dubey after Meta apology

Zuckerberg had said that "2024 was the big election year around the world and a lot of countries like India and a tonne of countries that had elections and incumbents basically lost every single one"

Delhi HC questions necessity of granting interim bail to Tahir Hussain

Delhi Police opposed Tahir's interim bail plea, citing the case of Amritpal Singh, who had filed his nomination from jail, as a precedent

Delhi polls: Within 5 yrs, slums in Delhi will be demolished, says Kejriwal

The AAP national convener claimed that the BJP does not intend to build houses for the slum dwellers

Musk holds discussions with Germany's 'far-right' leaders ahead of polls

Tech billionaire Elon Musk live-streamed a chat with a leader of Germany's far-right party on Thursday, using the power of his social media platform, X, to amplify its message ahead of an upcoming national election and raising concerns across Europe about potential meddling by the world's richest man. Musk, who worked last year to help reelect Donald Trump in the United States, told Alice Weidel, a co-leader of the Alternative for Germany party and its candidate for chancellor, that he was strongly recommending that people vote for AfD, using the acronym for the party. The two agreed that Germany's taxes are too high, that there is too much immigration and that it was a mistake for the country to shut down nuclear power plants. More than 190,000 X accounts tuned into the conversation. Musk has previously used X to endorse AfD, and he authored an article for the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, claiming Germany under center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz is teetering on the edge of economic

EC defends rule change curbing release of polling booth CCTV footage

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Tuesday defended the recent amendment to election rules restricting CCTV footage of polling booths from public inspection, saying it is meant to protect voters' privacy and prevent use of data for creating fake narratives. Based on Election Commission's recommendation, the government had last month tweaked an election rule to prevent public inspection of certain electronic documents such as CCTV camera footage of polling stations to prevent misuse. In his first remarks on tweak of Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, Kumar said only sharing of CCTV footage from inside and outside polling booths have been restricted. Addressing a press conference here to announce the schedule for Delhi Assembly polls, he said such data or footage was banned for public inspection through EC's instructions in 2024. He said certain other documents which are allowed under Rule 93 of the Conduct of Election Rules will continue to be available. Some documents which

Canada's PM Justin Trudeau likely to resign as Liberal Party leader

At the time of filing this report, the Canadian Prime Minister's office had not provided a comment.

Delhi, Bihar Assembly elections in 2025 to test the fate of freebies

This year will have the fewest elections of any in the current five-year electoral cycle. What does that mean for welfare schemes?

Awami League may contest elections unless banned, says Bangladesh CEC

Bangladesh's Chief Election Commissioner AMM Nasir Uddin has said that ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League may participate in elections unless the government or the judiciary issues a ban against the party. The chief election commissioner (CEC) said this during a meeting with election officials at the Chittagong Circuit House on Monday, The Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported. Nasir Uddin also assured that the Election Commission runs with complete independence and faces no external pressure. We are committed to taking all necessary steps to ensure a fair and transparent election, he added. The CEC also acknowledged the issue of fake voters in previous elections and attributed a decline in voter registration to mistrust in the voting process. He announced plans to initiate a voter list update soon to address these concerns. The voter list will be updated within the next six months. This time, elections will not follow previous patterns. Since August 5, there has been .

Voter ID alone doesn't ensure voting rights: Delhi chief electoral officer

Delhi's Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls nears completion and the final voter list will be published on January 6, 2025

BJP stumbles in 2024 LS polls but stamps authority in state elections

The inauguration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in January was meant to deliver an unprecedented electoral harvest to the ruling BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. And when it lost its majority, many thought it was the beginning of reverses awaiting the BJP. The outgoing year followed anything but a predictable path for the party. However, as the year drew to its end, the BJP has stamped its authority on the country's political map once again with remarkably improbable wins in what were seen as difficult state elections in Haryana and Maharashtra. The BJP's vulnerabilities and as well as strengths were in full display in the year but what stood out is its ability to adapt its message and methods to the voices from the ground, underlining the full-spectrum of its campaign machine in which various components rise and fall in importance depending on its electoral needs. If the RSS was seen to be less than fully active during the national elections, its affiliates and sympathisers were in full force

Musk berated by German leaders for extending support to far-right party

Musk, a key advisor and major donor to US President-elect Donald Trump, has repeatedly praised the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany in recent weeks

Schemes, scams, and satire: AI takes over Delhi election campaign

From promoting schemes to fact-checking election promises, political parties are spending big on social media with a creative blend to connect with voters

One Nation, One Election bill could give ECI say over Assemblies' terms

In the current version of CAB, if a state's elections cannot be held with the LS, the EC will be empowered to declare the dates for those polls, effectively giving it final say on the Assembly's term

Congress files writ petition in SC against amendments to election rules

The Congress on Tuesday filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging the recent amendments to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 and expressed hope that the apex court will help restore the "fast eroding" integrity of the electoral process. The government has tweaked an election rule to prevent public inspection of certain electronic documents such as CCTV camera and webcasting footage as well as video recordings of candidates to prevent their misuse. AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh, who filed the petition, said, "The integrity of the electoral process is fast eroding. Hopefully the Supreme Court will help restore it." "A writ has just been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the recent amendments to the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961," he said in a post on X. Ramesh said the Election Commission, a Constitutional body charged with the conduct of free and fair elections cannot be allowed to unilaterally, and without public consultation, amend such a vital law in