'Women voters scripted history in 2024 Lok Sabha polls': CEC Rajiv Kumar

India created world record with 64.2 crore people voting in Lok Sabha polls: CEC Rajiv Kumar

A day ahead of the counting day, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar briefing the media, outlined how women voters turned up in record numbers during the just concluded parliamentary polls. He added that the turnout marks the highest in the world.

"Voters scripted history in 2024. Over 31 crore women cast their vote. Over 64 crore votes have been cast in these elections," CEC Rajiv Kumar said at the presser.

Commenting on the efficacy of India's election mechanism and the role of the electorate, the CEC said: “We have created a world record of 642 million proud Indian voters. This is a historic moment for all of us. This is just to give you some small statistics. This is 1.5 times of the voters of all G7 countries - US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada.. all put together."

Drawing a comparison with the electorate in other major democracies, he said, the poll body is comparing voters and not electors and it is 2.5 times of the voters of 27 counties in the EU. " That has been the incredible power of the voters of India. There are 312 million proud women voters. This is also the highest ever in the world. It is larger than the 2019 elections.. Both the total and the women voters. We must cherish this," stated Rajiv Kumar.

Speaking on the incidents of repolling, he said there were fewer repolling in these Lok Sabha polls in comparison to the previous general elections. "Due to the meticulous work of the election personnel we ensured fewer repolls - we saw 39 repolls in Lok Sabha polls 2024 as opposed to 540 in 2019 and 25 out of 39 repolls were in 2 States only," underlined CEC.

Dismissing Opposition concern regarding the counting process, Rajiv Kumar reiterated that the exercise is extremely robust and full-proof. The elaborate mechanisms in place to dither any untoward incident. The Election mechanism in India is not new, it is being carried out over decades. Any misgivings regarding the sanctity of the counting process must be put to rest, said CEC.