Democracy and Disillusionment: What Phase I of the Election Reveals
- Gautam Warrier
- Apr 27, 2024
- 2 min read
(Disclaimer : This post was written on 25/04, before Phase II of the elections)
The first phase of the elections for the 18th Lok Sabha commenced on Friday, 19th April for 102 seats, with 16 crore voters eligible to cast their votes. 21 states and Union Territories went to the ballots, with 10 states and Union Territories, including Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand, completing their polling.
The country witnessed a low 65.5% voter turnout - 5 percentage points lower than Phase I of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Historically, it has been seen that Phase I of the elections sets the tone for the general turnout of the Lok Sabha elections. 19 out of 21 states and Union Territories that went to the polls saw a decline in voter turnout, signalling voter apathy and indifference. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has attributed this low turnout to extreme heat across the nation and has since assembled a task force to review the impact of heat waves on the national elections.
The ECI has also taken note of worrying developments in the North-East, where elections were marred by boycotts and violence - with six districts in Nagaland witnessing a zero voter turnout. Additionally, EVMs in 11 polling stations in the Inner Manipur constituency were destroyed by unidentified individuals after an altercation with the local community.
Overall, it was observed that the decline in Phase I turnouts was the highest in the Central and Northern states (Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand), followed by East and North-Eastern states, followed by other states such as Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
Every election in these 102 constituencies has seen an increase in combined turnout since 1999. The 2024 election, worryingly, breaks this trend and compromises the democratic process that India prides itself on at the international stage. The ECI has taken the right steps in the interim to address the low voter turnout, but reports suggest that it might be too little, too late for the Indian electorate.
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