Elections in India
For the in-progress Indian General
Elections see Indian general election,
2009.
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Since independence, elections in India
have evolved a long way, but all along elec-
tions have been a significant cultural aspect
of independent India.
In 2004, Indian elections covered an elect-
orate larger than 670 million people—over
twice that of the next largest, the European
Parliament elections—and declared expendit-
ure has trebled since 1989 to almost $300
million, using more than 1 million electronic
voting machines[1].
The size of the huge electorate mandates
that elections be conducted in a number of
phases (there were four phases in 2004 Gen-
eral Elections). It involves a number of step-
by-step processes from announcement of
election dates by the Election Commission of
India, which brings into force the ’model
code of conduct’ for the political parties, to
the announcement of results and submission
of the list of successful candidates to the ex-
ecutive head of the state or the centre. The
submission of results marks the end of the
election process, thereby paving way for the
formation of the new government.
Indian electoral system
The Parliament of India comprises the head
of state — the president — and the two
Houses which are the legislature. The Presid-
ent of India is elected for a five-year term by
an electoral college consistin