LS polls are a mind-boggling affair in India, where voting population is larger than combined populations of the US, the UK, Brazil, Russia, Japan, and France.
166 million people across 21 states and Union territories will step into 187,000 polling stations on Friday and vote in the first and largest phase of the general elections, kicking off the world’s largest democratic exercise that will span the next six weeks and see nearly a billion citizens exercise their franchise.
Polling officials with EVMs and other election material leave for poll duty ahead of Lok Sabha elections, in Bastar district, Chhattisgarh. (PTI)
The first phase of the Lok Sabha elections will be guarded by 1.8 million personnel and decide the fate of 1,625 candidates – from the snow-capped mountains of Uttarakhand and the rolling vales of Arunachal Pradesh to the southernmost tip of the mainland at Kanniyakumari and the dusty deserts of Rajasthan.
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84 million men and 82.3 million women, in addition to 11,371 transgender people, will exercise their franchise on Friday. Among them will be 3.5 million first-time voters and 35 million people between the ages of 20 and 29. Nine Union ministers, two former chief ministers and a former governor are among the contestants.
“The commission considers that it is the time now for voters to act. It has with all sincerity appealed to voters to step out of their homes, go to the polling station and vote with responsibility and pride,” said the Election Commission of India (ECI) in a statement.
Lok Sabha elections are a mind-boggling affair in a country where the voting population is larger than the combined populations of the US and the UK, Brazil, Russia, Japan, and France. The polls will take place in seven phases — on April 19, 26, May 7, 13, 20, 25, and June 1 – a testament to the daunting logistical and security challenges in overseeing an electorate stretching from the Himalayas in the north to deserts in the west, insurgent-infested tropical jungles in the centre and the coastal plains in the south. ECI officials have used 41 helicopters, 84 special trains and nearly 100,000 vehicles to ferry polling, security personnel and electronic voting machines to inhospitable heights and desolate constituencies.
Along with the elections to the Lok Sabha, assembly elections will be held in Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Arunachal Pradesh. In terms of span, this will be the longest general elections since India’s maiden Lok Sabha polls that lasted four months – from October 1951 to February 1952.
“The Election Commission of India has made all preparations to welcome voters to the biggest festival of democracy that any nation has witnessed, the elections to the 18th Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies in four states that start off with Phase 1,” the statement said.
The elections will see Prime Minister Narendra Modi seek a third consecutive term, which will make him only the second person in independent India after Jawaharlal Nehru to achieve the feat.
Throughout this frenetic poll campaign, leaders of both the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) have pitched narratives that bridge deep and complex divisions of caste, class, religion and region. In the last general elections in 2019, the BJP rode on a wave of Modi’s pan-Indian popularity and nationalistic fervour to a once-in-a-generation majority. The party won 303 seats, and along with its allies comprising the NDA captured 336 seats in the 543-member Lower House. The Congress, saddled by the weight of past corruption and the lack of a charismatic leader, was reduced to 52 seats.
This time, the BJP has set a target of 370 seats and 400 for the NDA on the back of welfare politics, development, and the Hindutva plank. Former allies have returned to the NDA ahead of the polls, as the BJP looks to defend its fortress in northern India and make inroads in eastern and southern India.
The INDIA bloc hopes to cut into the BJP’s electoral track record and broad social coalition, keep its southern citadel intact and stave off the BJP’s raids into western and eastern India.
In 2019, the general elections recorded a turnout of 67%, the highest since the first election in 1951-52. The first election process in independent India in 1951 was a months-long process that spilled over into 1952. The turnout was just 45% as the authorities struggled to reach remote areas in a country where the vast majority of the electorate was illiterate. Since then, ECI has instituted a number of innovations, becoming a model for major democracies and extending its expertise to help conduct polls in countries such as Cameroon, Afghanistan and the Philippines.The women’s turnout in 2019 outstripped that of men — 67.18% to 67.01% — for the first time.
The first phase will see all seats from Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Puducherry go to the polls.
The largest chunk of seats will be in Tamil Nadu, where all 39 constituencies are going to the polls. The INDIA bloc holds 38 out of these seats and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led grouping in the state will hope for a repeat performance. Battling the ruling coalition is its traditional Dravidian rival, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and a resurgent BJP that has put in enormous energy and resources into a state that is considered a bridge too far for the party. The AIADMK, which left the BJP alliance in 2023, targeted the DMK in the state and the BJP at the Centre for poor governance.
All five Lok Sabha seats in Uttarakhand, where the BJP and Congress are in direct contest, will also go to the polls. The BJP swept the state in 2014 and 2019.
Focus will also be on the 12 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan, where the other 13 will go to the polls in the next phase. The BJP had swept Rajasthan in 2019 and is contesting all seats. The Congress, on the other hand, is contesting 22 and left three for its alliance partners Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP).
In Uttar Pradesh, eight seats – Saharanpur, Bijnor, Kairana, Muzaffarnagar, Nagina, Moradabad, Rampur, and Pilibhit – are going to polls in the western part of the state.
In Madhya Pradesh, six of the 29 Lok Sabha seats are going to polls. In Bihar, this number stands at four, and in West Bengal, three. In the Northeast, 14 of the 25 Lok Sabha seats including five in Assam, go to polls.
In a video message to party workers, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday told party workers that this is no ordinary election but one to save the Constitution. “This is not an ordinary election, this is an election to save the Constitution and democracy,” Gandhi said in his message delivered in both Hindi and English.
The BJP-RSS are against the idea of India, Gandhi said, adding the Congress will defeat the BJP and its ideology.
Senior BJP leader and Union home minister Amit Shah told PTI the BJP-led NDA will achieve its goal of winning more than 400 seats. “Be it the East, West, North or South, the atmosphere in the country suggests that we will get more than 400 seats. The BJP’s performance in south India will be the best-ever this time,” he said.
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How Biden, 81, stacks up in age against other world leaders – Pew Research Center
Joe Biden, at 81, is the oldest American president, a distinction he’s held since entering office at age 78. As Biden runs for reelection in 2024, he is the ninth oldest national leader in the world, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of sitting leaders in 187 United Nations member states.
Former President Donald Trump, who is running for the White House again this year, is younger than Biden. But at 77, Trump also falls among the 20 oldest world leaders when compared with those currently in power.
How we did this
With current U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump both running for reelection to the country’s highest office, Pew Research Center examined the ages of current national leaders to place the ages of Biden and Trump into a global context.
This analysis examines the ages of the current heads of government in 187 countries that are member states of the United Nations, relying on government biographies and regional news articles. It reflects the ages of national leaders – and in a few instances, acting or interim leaders – as of May 1, 2024. It excludes six UN member states for which an exact birth date of the leader could not be found: Afghanistan, Haiti, Iraq, Mali, Niger and Somalia. For each of these countries, we reached out to embassy officials in the United States but did not receive further information.
This analysis focuses mostly on heads of government as defined by a country’s political system or constitution. In some cases, we determined the national leader based on which executive has the power to appoint/dismiss the nominal head of government. In San Marino, where there are two captains regent who share power, we included data for Alessandro Rossi, as he assumed the position most recently.
This analysis also draws on Freedom House country rankings to determine whether countries are free, partly free or not free. These rankings are based on two numerical scores assigned to each country for its political rights and civil liberties.
The median age of each country’s overall population is a 2024 projection from the UN’s World Population Prospects 2022 report. The projections are based on “all available sources of data on population size and levels of fertility, mortality and international migration.”
American voters are skeptical about both candidates’ fitness for the job, according to a recent Center survey. Only about four-in-ten U.S. registered voters are extremely or very confident that Trump has the mental fitness to be president (38%), while a similar share are confident in his physical fitness (36%). Even fewer express this degree of confidence in Biden’s mental (21%) and physical (15%) fitness for the role.
Below are five key facts about the ages of current national leaders.
National leaders range in age from their mid-30s to 91. The youngest leader is Burkina Faso’s Ibrahim Traoré, who is 36. He only slightly edges out two fellow 36-year-olds, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and Montenegrin Prime Minister Milojko Spajić. Only two other world leaders are in their 30s: Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris and Chilean President Gabriel Boric.
The oldest national leader is President Paul Biya of Cameroon, who was born in 1933 and took office more than 40 years ago. Biya is the only current national leader in his 90s.
The median age of current national leaders is 62, as of May 1, 2024. The largest share of global leaders today (34%) are in their 60s. Roughly a quarter (22%) are in their 50s; 19% are in their 70s; and 16% are in their 40s. Biden is among the 5% of leaders who are in their 80s.
Countries that are less free tend to have older leaders. In countries that Freedom House classifies as “not free,” the median age of the national leader is 68. That compares with 62 in countries that are classified as “partly free” and 60 in countries classified as “free.”
The United States is one of only three countries that are classified as free and have a leader age 80 or older; the other two are Ghana and Namibia. In Ghana, President Nana Akufo-Addo recently turned 80 in office. And in Namibia, 82-year-old Nangolo Mbumba took over as president earlier this year following the previous leader’s death in office at age 82.
The median age for women leaders and men leaders is the same. Among men who are world leaders, 3% are in their 30s, while no women leaders are in this age group. Yet, of the 14 women leaders currently in power, 29% are in their 40s, compared with 14% of leaders who are men.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark is the youngest female leader at 46, followed closely by fellow 46-year-old Kaja Kallas, the prime minister of Estonia. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh is the oldest female leader at 76.
In most countries, the leader is significantly older than the median member of the population. For example, the median American is 38, according to UN population projections for 2024, while Biden is more than twice as old. In fact, the only countries that have a leader who is younger than the median resident of the country are Montenegro, Ireland and Italy. Andorran Prime Minister Xavier Espot Zamora, at 44, is the same age as the median Andorran resident.
In general, countries that Freedom House classifies as free are more likely than those classified as partly free or not free to have leaders who are closer in age to the median resident of the country.
Note: This is an update of a post originally published on March 24, 2023.
Today’s front pages: ‘Trump is ruled in contempt’ – The Week
Former President Donald Trump’s bad day in court made the front pages of several U.S. newspapers on Tuesday. “Trump is ruled in contempt,” the Houston Chronicle says, as the “judge orders him to pay $9,000 and warns of jail risk if he further violates gag order,” the Los Angeles Times adds. In the trial itself, “Trump witness tells of tactics to buy silence” from a porn actress and Playboy model, The New York Times says.
The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, tucks in a front-page column about tricking “ChatGPT into being my boyfriend,” and finding “he got spicy fast.”
Many newspapers have front-page updates on the student protests against Israel’s Gaza war, notably at Columbia University — “cops crush Columbia takeover,” the New York Daily News says. And the Miami Herald says that Florida’s six-week abortion ban takes effect today, “cutting off major access point” for women in the Southeast.
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Ronnie O’Sullivan v Stuart Bingham LIVE: World Championship score and latest updates – The Independent
Ronnie O’Sullivan signs young fan’s shirt
Ronnie O’Sullivan is in action at the Crucible Theatre today to finish his World Snooker Championship quarter-final with Stuart Bingham after they ended the first session all square at 4-4. O’Sullivan is chasing a record eighth title as well as the season triple crown, but the experienced Bingham is providing a real test after a smooth passage through the first two rounds.
In the other quarter-finals, which all conclude today, Judd Trump was knocked out by Jak Jones in a major upset. The world No 2 never got into his stride with a series of shocking misses and Jones wrapped up the 13-9 victory with a century break. He will now play either O’Sullivan or Bingham in his first semi-final at the Crucible.
Elsewhere, Kyren Wilson turned the screw on John Higgins with more high-scoring breaks to open up a lead before the four-time champion hit back, and David Gilbert held a commanding lead over Stephen Maguire coming into their final session.
Follow all the action from the World Snooker Championship below, and get the latest predictions and odds here.
ICYMI: Jones stuns out-of-sorts Trump to reach semi-finals
Judd Trump’s hopes of landing a second world snooker title were shattered by qualifier Jak Jones in a major quarter-final upset at the Crucible.
Jones, the world number 44, capitalised on an error-strewn display by the 2019 champion to turn an 8-8 overnight tie into a 13-9 win and reach the last four for the first time.
His unlikely win leaves Jones two more wins away from becoming only the third qualifier to win the famous title after Terry Griffiths in 1979 and Shaun Murphy in 2005.
Trump looked off the pace throughout the concluding session, and a dreadful missed pink in the 20th frame cued up Jones for a break of 61 that put clear air between the pair at 11-9.
A miss on an even easier yellow in the next sent Jones one frame from victory, and when Trump went in-off potting a red in the 22nd frame, Jones responded with a nerveless 106 clearance to finish.
Judd Trump, right, was given a hard test by Jak Jones (Mike Egerton/PA Wire)
Both players continued to make unforced errors, with O’Sullivan banging his cue against the table after missing an early red. However, another mistake from Bingham when attempting a long pot after running out of position gave O’Sullivan a chance to build what eventually proved a frame-winning break of 64 and – after Bingham had initially played on when needing four snookers – saw him move ahead in the match for the first time.
Bingham, though, made sure he would end on level terms with a break of 72 in the final frame to leave the match delicately poised when it resumes on Wednesday afternoon for the final two sessions.
Bingham, world champion in 2015, was then set for a potential maximum chance in the next, but came up short of position off the seventh red, allowing O’Sullivan back to build a break of 66 which eventually proved enough to get a first frame on the board.
At the start of the last frame before the mid-session interval, O’Sullivan sent what looked a routine black into the jaws of the bottom right pocket, leaving the table set for Bingham to produce a break of 90 and further cement his advantage. ‘The Rocket’ returned to hit a fine 116 break and reduce the deficit with his 206th century at the Crucible.
World No 1 O’Sullivan looked to have spurned a chance to level up after missing a red into the bottom left pocket when on a break of 43, but Bingham then failed to sink one into the middle, which allowed his fellow Essex cueman back to pinch the frame.
O’Sullivan, bidding for a record eighth world title, had looked out of sorts during the early exchanges following some wayward cueing as Bingham – who beat Jack Lisowski 13-11 on Monday night – took the first two frames with breaks of 55 and 75.
Jones leaves himself short on the blue and needs to put away a testing mid-length red to keep the break alive… and he pots it right into the centre of the pocket. A couple more reds, and Jones has won the frame and the match! He polishes off the table for a brilliant century break.
A huge upset in the quarter-finals. Judd Trump is out and Jak Jones is into his first World Championship semi-final.
Jones is understandably taking his time with what is perhaps the most important break of his life. He is having to use the rest to reach some awkward balls, but so far he’s kept good control of the cue ball.
He leads 44-25 right now and there are six reds left on the table.
Trump cannot believe it – he tries to fire the cue ball into baulk and back out again after potting the blue, but he hits the brown and sends the white in off! It just isn’t happening for the world No 2.
Jones now comes to an inviting table 25 points down but with the chance to hit back and win the match. Can he hold his nerve?
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