General Elections 2014- Transition of power & World Reaction

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 12 Apr 2014 07:15

Window to window canvassing. Gaurav Sharma wearing a spiderman's costume canvassing in the elections.
Courtesy: Guardian

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 12 Apr 2014 07:19

Election materials in Agartala.

Security personnel in Agartala.

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 12 Apr 2014 08:02

My heart swells with pride seeing the election fever. no country virtually no country can have this celebration on a massive scale.

even the voting %ages are pretty big. augurs well for democracy.
yes want my favorite man to become PM with absolute majority.

amritk · Post by **amritk** » 12 Apr 2014 09:29

In the EVM PowerPoint, it seems to me that anyone could replace the handwritten list of candidates with a reordered one. It is just inserted behind a clear plastic fascia. What do the gurus think.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 12 Apr 2014 09:40

BSF and CRP forces look quite tagada (strong) from before. Looks like they are keeping fit with good nutrition and discipline.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 12 Apr 2014 09:48

matrimc wrote:BSF and CRP forces look quite tagada (strong) from before. Looks like they are keeping fit with good nutrition and discipline.

matrimc - there is a general increase in nutritional status all over India with much taller people and youngsters with bulging muscles like never before. And at the other end - even in the army - paunches are beginning to appear among non-combat staff like people working in army accounts etc.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 12 Apr 2014 16:30

Pretty soon the sdre characterization will apply only to the old folks (i.e., us) hain? New designation will be TFCE (Tall Fat Cow-Eating)?

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 13 Apr 2014 00:23

amritk wrote:In the EVM PowerPoint, it seems to me that anyone could replace the handwritten list of candidates with a reordered one. It is just inserted behind a clear plastic fascia. What do the gurus think.

No , this sort of things don't happen. List in specific order is notified and also published in Newspaper. Poster indicating the order of candidates and name symbols are posted outside the polling booth. When EVM is prepared for polling all political parties' agents are present, who are contesting in that constituency. Poll agents are there before EVM is set in Voting compartment. Once Ballot paper is inserted and EVM is sealed , it is difficult for anyone except presiding officer to have access to it. Each ballot paper is numbered and mated with EVM. It is opened in presence of Counting agents and if seals are broken they would object and it would result in countermanding if winning margin is less the the votes polled in that EVM,Ballot unit and control units are also mated.You cant open EVM without breaking the paper seals and that would invalidate EVM.Then there are multiple layers of police. And if after this EVM is tempered or found tempered by any one, election will be countermanded and goose of presiding officer will be cooked.

Shalav · Post by **Shalav** » 13 Apr 2014 01:16

Election tourism thrives as India votes

Al Jazeera

amritk · Post by **amritk** » 13 Apr 2014 06:03

Thanks chaanakya. The ppt didn't really explain the security and integrity mechanisms but your explanation makes sense.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 13 Apr 2014 06:49

You cant open EVM without breaking the paper seals and that would invalidate EVM.Then there are multiple layers of police. And if after this EVM is tempered or found tempered by any one, election will be countermanded and goose of presiding officer will be cooked.

Per Shri Herr Doktor-e-Harvardi Subramaniam Swamy, its the firmware of the EVM that is cooked - that someone outside with a cellphone or similar gizmo can log in and change the info on the EVM.

So I would think that the purpose of the grand election is to count the number of voters in each Constituency. Otherwise there is a grave danger of The Gujranwala Problem - Musharraf won 145% of the number of registered voters, and that sort-of ruined his Musharrendum. Even his buddies in the SDOTUS, and Uneven Cohen had to

at that.

Once that is determined, the number of votes won by The Favored Candidate can be adjusted carefully to be around, say, 43.359 per cent. With 5 candidates in the field, that assures victory. Brilliant!

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 13 Apr 2014 09:29

Amazing over 800M go to polls in India. Meanwhile in US, President bemoans moves to curtail voters rights in US! What a contrast. And wants to lecture India!

vishvak · Post by **vishvak** » 13 Apr 2014 13:30

ramana wrote:Amazing over 800M go to polls in India. Meanwhile in US, President bemoans moves to curtail voters rights in US! What a contrast. And wants to lecture India!

Amazing also that either is secularism only so Indians can't get anymore credit then allocated by powers that be and secular can't lose any credit whatsoever.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 13 Apr 2014 14:44

Has there ever been any of the "western" nations aka assorted Germannic tribes dwellers, elected a non-xian and non white as its national head. Obama notwithstanding.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 13 Apr 2014 17:03

Rather low poll numbers for a major cricketing power, hain? Hajaar-hajaar constituencies and candidates, each like a horse (or other equestrian species) race, yet only so little? More money than this rides on how many sixes Ishant Sharma will be hit for in the last over of a 20-20.

Absolutely quaint Victorian reporting: all betting, being so evil, is supposed to be run by the standard Moriarties and Blofelds such as Dawood Ibrahim, Chota Shakeel, Chota Rajan etc. You mean aam desis are incapable of running a small pool on election results? Or are too pure-hearted to do any gambling?

Hologram Campaigns, Showing The Finger and "Show the Ink, Watch Prices Sink"
And Pompous Idiots Writ(h)ing against Democracy

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 13 Apr 2014 18:20

Snip OT

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 16 Apr 2014 06:12

Over 132 crore liters of liquor and cash seized by EC

NEW DELHI: These elections are proving to be a tippler's delight, if the figures of liquor seizures made by Election Commission-appointed teams are anything to go by. Over 132 crore litres of liquor have been confiscated from across the country till date, which translates to nearly 1.6 litre seized for each voter in the country's 81.4-crore electorate.

As for cash seizures, they totalled Rs 269 crore as per EC data prepared till Tuesday. The lion's share of these cash seizures has come from Andhra Pradesh (Rs 129 crore), followed by Maharashtra (Rs 33.46 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 19.87 crore), Karnataka (Rs 12.29 crore), Uttar Pradesh (Rs 12 crore) and Punjab (Rs 5 crore).

More than 12,000 FIRs have been registered against distribution of cash and illegal inducements in various states.

It's not only alcohol that is in full flow in the poll-bound states. Deadly drugs are also being held out as a "potent" bait, with heroin seizures from across the country totalling 104 kg so far. EC teams in Punjab, according to commission sources, have reported some big drug seizures.

An EC official said the seized quantities may only reflect a part of the amounts of cash, liquor and drugs in circulation during the current polls. "Moreover, with five more phases of polling yet to be held, the quantum of seizures during these elections could well see a two to three-fold rise over the current figures," the official told TOI.

So something is cooking in AP where the amount of cash siezed is 4 times the next state of Maharashtra. Punjab seems to top in durgs.

So how much is the ratio of seized to already distributed cash? 1:10 or 1:4?

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 16 Apr 2014 06:17

^ Ramanaji.

It is ESL Narasimhan effect.

TKiran · Post by **TKiran** » 16 Apr 2014 09:28

It has something to do with Hyderabad US consulate also.

harbans · Post by **harbans** » 16 Apr 2014 15:16

Deleted

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 17 Apr 2014 05:04

Ranchi. The Hindu

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 17 Apr 2014 05:04

Courtesy: ABPLive

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 17 Apr 2014 06:16

Tx "Dr." Swamy G! That was an excellent map.Today is the real "day of decision" that will determine the fate of the nation. The big Q is whether the extra % of anti-incumbency voters will go out and cast their votes,as their may be a degree of complacency seeing the opinion polls and expecting their favoured nag to romp home a winner."Many a slip twixt the cup and the lip".

Flipping through some of the dailies today,I see that in TN,the estranged son of the DMK patriarch is now throwing his weight behind the BJP candidates.The Modi "mood" seems to be slowly penetrating into the south too,but whether it will translate into seats depends upon its poll partners.

saip · Post by **saip** » 17 Apr 2014 07:01

Why are in Agartala material is in gunny bags while in Ranchi they look pretty neat?

Sri · Post by **Sri** » 17 Apr 2014 07:06

Ranchi material has not gone into the gunny bag yet.

saip · Post by **saip** » 17 Apr 2014 07:24

Ramana, in US you wont even know there is an election going on unless you are watching TV. Atleast in my office no one even talked about them. And when I went to vote it was just me and my wife. No queue. In India it is like a festival. I miss it.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 17 Apr 2014 07:49

saip garu: Absolutely. Same with going to a cinema theater.

AnimeshP · Post by **AnimeshP** » 17 Apr 2014 07:55

Voted in Bangalore today ... it was a very smooth affair. It took us less than 20 minutes end-to-end for:
1. Going from home to the polling station
2. Getting our voting slip from the party desk near the polling station
3. Take that slip to the voting room
4. Cast our vote
5. Be back home

ECI has made voting such a smooth affair. Kudos to them .... (Will talk about my observations about party booths in the political thread ...

)

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 17 Apr 2014 08:12

We also voted and it was also a smooth affair (Actually I have had no problems in any election so far !) Was one of the first to vote to avoid the later rush. For the life of me could not find my EPIC card so used my passport but found out that since I was carrying the Election office voter ID slip that could also be used and rather than taking my passport as ID the election officer used the official voter slip as ID.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 17 Apr 2014 08:22

amritk wrote:In the EVM PowerPoint, it seems to me that anyone could replace the handwritten list of candidates with a reordered one. It is just inserted behind a clear plastic fascia. What do the gurus think.

the order in which names of candidates appear is decided by lottery and is known to the parties beforehand. I do know of one case where the list was replaced but the other parties caught on while talking to voters and a re-election was ordered.

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 17 Apr 2014 08:31

Tweeted to Prasannavishy of forty3.in and they were not aware of it.I suspect they may be hacked !

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 17 Apr 2014 12:13

Rahul M wrote:
amritk wrote:In the EVM PowerPoint, it seems to me that anyone could replace the handwritten list of candidates with a reordered one. It is just inserted behind a clear plastic fascia. What do the gurus think.
the order in which names of candidates appear is decided by lottery and is known to the parties beforehand. I do know of one case where the list was replaced but the other parties caught on while talking to voters and a re-election was ordered.

That is wrong.

The order is

Category-1: Recognised National and state Party candidates in alphabetical orders
Category-2: Candidates of unrecognised registered parties in alphabetical order
Category-3: Independents in alphabetical order.

Alphabetical order is maintained within each category based on the script of first language mentioned in list of specified languages of the Constituency.

For example in Bihar it would be Hindi and in Tamilnadu it would be Tamil and if any constituency has more than one official language in the following order Punjabi, Hindi then alphabetical order would be based on Punjabi in Punjab and in Chandigarh it is Hindi , Punjabi so order would be based on Hindi.

It is notified in Gazette and known to the candidates.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 17 Apr 2014 12:17

Defective Pune EVM 'transfers' all votes to Congress

Is this EVM magic what people are tlking about. This could be serious thing and cast doubt on poll result.

PUNE: Early morning voters, including many senior citizens, were bewildered when an electronic voting machine (EVM) reportedly "transferred" all votes to the Congress.

The incident happened at a polling booth at Shamrao Kalmadi School in the city when voters found that whichever button was pressed on the EVM, only the Congress light blinked.

Some of the alert voters brought this to the notice of the election officials who stopped voting immediately.

"The Election Commission authorities have ordered a new machine for this particular polling booth which is expected to come soon," said local BJP activist Madhur Sahasrabuddhe.

The poll panel has also decided to permit around 28 voters who had already cast their votes with the defective EVM, to vote afresh.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 17 Apr 2014 13:28

thx chanakyaa, I got it from a congress wala. seems he was all hot air.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 17 Apr 2014 13:38

Please stop derailing this thread with EVM fraud conspiracy theories. There are 1.7 million EVMs being used. These are machines and will have a small failure rate like any machine. Previously, similar failures have been mentioned where a machine accidentally recorded every vote against one party. All that matters is that the failure be noticed early and the EVM be replaced, which the ECI has so far been doing a very good job at.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 17 Apr 2014 13:56

Suraj wrote:Please stop derailing this thread with EVM fraud conspiracy theories. There are 1.7 million EVMs being used. These are machines and will have a small failure rate like any machine. Previously, similar failures have been mentioned where a machine accidentally recorded every vote against one party. All that matters is that the failure be noticed early and the EVM be replaced, which the ECI has so far been doing a very good job at.

In Bangalore one drunk has smashed an EVM. One more failure of EVM.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 17 Apr 2014 15:30

Suraj wrote:Please stop derailing this thread with EVM fraud conspiracy theories. There are 1.7 million EVMs being used. These are machines and will have a small failure rate like any machine. Previously, similar failures have been mentioned where a machine accidentally recorded every vote against one party. All that matters is that the failure be noticed early and the EVM be replaced, which the ECI has so far been doing a very good job at.

When This news item is mentioned on ToiLet , how can this be derailment.

Are you aware that before each EVM is dispatched a Mock poll is conducted in presence of agents of Political parties? While doing EVM preparation and candidate setting, BEL engineers are also present at each and every such locations to check EVM. They are also present on Poll day and counting day to check EVMs in all constituency going to polls. And ECI has prescribed 5% as poll reserve to replace malfunctioning EVM on Poll day.

Are you aware that same exercise is undertaken at Polling station to check that EVM is recording correctly, in front of Booth agents of political parties and this exercise takes place two hours before poll.

There could be many issues with EVM and there are enough reserves to cater to replacement of malfunctioning EVM .

And it was not detected in all this exercise, and an alert voter noticed this.

Normally voters report battery dead or button not working etc. This is unique problem and not reported earlier , in my knowledge.

This is Not to say that I subscribe to EVM magic theory but to verify the reasons behind this incident and that there is a possibility of vote transfer that worries me especially when reported in MSM. So rather than fuming , see the seriousness of news. Could be congi ploy as they are sure to suffer in the battle.

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 17 Apr 2014 20:12

What has been poking my curiosity is the long delay between polling and announcing results. What happens to the EVMs and the data inside them, during this period? "Counting" should be as simple as downloading one file of numbers, which may be updated every time a vote is cast, hain? So in principle, someone SHOULD be getting a near-live update, and record that, so that later the results should make sense (i.e., live record shows Ulan Batori getting 15 votes total by 5:35pm, but post-poll count shows 15,000,237.34 votes at 7pm - that should trigger some curiosity?) But if there are live updates (someone at this point should know quite clearly how many seats each party is projected to get), then there must be IMMENSE pressure to reveal that - one can make gazillions on the stock market, or plan coup/destabilization operations/ applying for asylum if not betting with any idea of that.

How do they deal with this? Keeping all EVM "sealed" until counting Officially Starts, seems to be a recipe for excitement. Also, is the "printed paper vote record" thing mandated by the Supreme Court in response to SS' petition, being implemented?

UlanBatori · Post by **UlanBatori** » 17 Apr 2014 20:16

Spirited Poll Season
No comment

member_28108 · Post by **member_28108** » 17 Apr 2014 20:19

From Wiki
As soon as the last voter has voted, the Polling Officer in-charge of the Control Unit will press the 'Close' Button. Thereafter, the EVM will not accept any votes. Further, after the close of poll, the Balloting Unit is disconnected from the Control Unit and kept separately. Votes can be recorded only through the Balloting Unit. Again the Presiding officer, at the close of the poll, will hand over to each polling agent present an account of votes recorded. At the time of counting of votes, the total will be tallied with this account and if there is any discrepancy, this will be pointed out by the Counting Agents.

During the counting of votes, the results are displayed by pressing the 'Result' button. There are two safeguards to prevent the 'Result' button from being pressed before the counting of votes officially begins. (a) This button cannot be pressed till the 'Close' button is pressed by the Polling Officer in-charge at the end of the voting process in the polling booth. (b) This button is hidden and sealed; this can be broken only at the counting center in the presence of designated officials.