Sunday, June 2, 2024, 8:18 p.m.
At least 33 electoral agents – poll workers and workers – died on Saturday from heart conditions on the last day of voting in India’s complex legislative elections, affected by unusually high temperatures of more than 45 degrees Celsius in the state of Uttar Pradesh .
The president of the Uttar Pradesh electoral commission, Navdeep Rinwa, reported this balance, which includes members of the security forces and health personnel, reports Indian television NDTV.
Furthermore, a voter died in the polling booth itself in Sikandarpur after fainting. He was taken to a health center, but only his death could be certified.
Rinwa explained that they have requested reports from local electoral authorities and autopsies to determine the specific causes of the deaths. He also announced 1.5 million rupees (about 16,500 euros) compensation for the families of the deceased workers.
Mori Advantage
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is about to be declared the winner of the elections and face a third term. Modi, a 73-year-old Hindu nationalist politician, seems on track to obtain a new electoral victory, his third in a row, according to exit polls after the end of voting on Saturday that closed an election that lasted six weeks.
CNN-News18 announced that, according to demographic data, Modi’s party and its allies would obtain at least 355 seats, well above the majority of 272 in the Lower House of the Indian Parliament.
The first official results are expected on Tuesday, after this electoral marathon, the largest in history, with nearly 968 million people called to the polls in the most populous country in the world.
Return to prison
“I was released for twenty-one days for the election campaign (…) Today I will surrender,” announced opponent Arvind Kejriwal on social networks. The politician, chief minister of the state of Delhi, is the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and is part of the alliance that tried to defeat Modi.
“When power transforms into dictatorship, prison becomes an obligation,” he later declared from his party headquarters, where he promised to continue “fighting.” The opposition leader was later imprisoned, a spokesman for his party told AFP.
Kejriwal was arrested in March as part of an investigation into allegations of corruption, which his supporters called a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The opposition politician was released on bail to campaign, with the condition of returning to prison after the end of the elections.
During the campaign, the opposition reported numerous obstacles, since Kejriwal is not the only politician facing legal cases.
Complaints
Western powers have largely turned a blind eye to reports of violations of rights and freedoms in India, in order to court a valuable ally in the face of China’s growing influence.
Kejriwal, 55, had been chief minister for ten years and came to office after a campaign in which he presented himself as a defender of the fight against corruption.
He is under investigation for a policy to liberalize alcohol sales in 2021, which was later suspended. Two of his allies are in prison on accusations of corruption in the allocation of liquor licenses.
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