The second round of voting for the Indian general election, which has 970 million voters and an election period of only 6 weeks, was held on the 26th. On this day, voters cast their votes at 88 polling stations in 13 states, including Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Assam. Five more votes will be held until the 1st of next month, and when the winners of the 543 seats in the House of Representatives are announced three days later, it will be decided whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be elected to a third term. In the Indian general election, which is a mammoth election with unprecedented numbers of voters and election period in the world, there are many scenes that cannot be seen in elections in other countries.
Local and foreign media focused on the purple ink that dyed the left index fingers of voters coming out of polling places. This ink, a trademark of Indian elections, is used to identify voters who have completed voting and to prevent duplicate voting in India, where identity verification tools such as resident registration cards are not widely available.
India has been operating a digital ID system called ‘Aadhaar’ since 2009, but 100 million people still have not been issued one. The purple ink was developed by India’s National Physical Research Institute and manufactured by India’s only ink manufacturer. It contains nitric acid, so it does not come off for at least four weeks after it seeps into the skin and nails. Even if you wipe it thoroughly with soap or detergent, it will not be damaged. It is said that stains on fingernails do not come off for up to four months until new nails grow. India developed this method during the 1962 general election and has used it in all elections to this day, and 30 countries, including Malaysia and Nigeria, import the ink from India to hold elections.
Another unique election culture in India is ‘freebies’. Freebie refers to a free gift or subsidy that political parties provide to voters to win their votes. In Hindi, it is also called ‘revdi’, which means ‘gift’. Items belonging to ‘Freebee’ range from daily necessities such as bottled water and electricity to the latest smartphones and cash. Politicians spray various ‘freebies’ to voters during election campaigns to get votes, and actually compete with each other to see who gives the better ‘freebies’.
This is an issue that is likely to immediately spark controversy over election fraud in Korea, but in India, the legal definition of ‘freebies’ is not clear, and there is no law explicitly prohibiting the distribution of free gifts, so it is not easy to determine whether it is illegal. In 2013, the Supreme Court of India stated that “Privi is seriously shaking the foundations of free and fair elections” and stated that separate legislation was needed, but no follow-up action was taken. However, if it is judged to be in violation of the guidelines for maintaining election integrity set by the Election Commission of India (ECI), only measures are taken to ensure that the sprayed freebies can be recovered. According to CNN, ECI announced that it had recovered a total of $550 million (approximately KRW 758.9 billion) worth of freebies ahead of this general election. It is said to be the largest amount in Indian election history, especially in Rajasthan, the stronghold of the ruling People’s Party.
In areas where conflict between ethnic minorities is acute, violence broke out at polling places. On the 21st, armed rioters occupied at least 11 polling stations in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur and went on a rampage. Manipur State is one of the constituencies where the first vote was held on the 19th. This region, home to about 3 million people, has been in conflict since May last year when a bloody clash between the Hindu Meitei tribe and the Christian Kukijo tribe led to the deaths of about 200 people. India’s Election Commission announced that it would invalidate the votes cast at those polling stations and hold a re-vote.
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