India votes: the biggest election in history - SABC News - Breaking news, special reports, world, business, sport coverage of all South African current events. Africa's news leader.

One eighth of the world's population - roughly 900-million people - are eligible to vote over April and May in the largest democracy on the planet.

In the last election, several hundred parties fielded more than 8 000 candidates for the lower house of parliament, where 543 seats are up for grabs. Winners are decided by a first past the post system, so the candidate with the most votes in each seat is elected. This creates some near absurd scenarios. This year, a nearly 20-strong team of election and police officials will trek into the jungle to set up a polling booth for a single voter in India’s remote Arunachal Pradesh state.This year millions of machines will be deployed – some taken by camel and helicopter – to hard-to-reach electorates.

Each voter’s index finger on the left hand is then marked with an indelible blue ink – manufactured in a single Indian city in the country’s south – to ensure they don’t vote twice.

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