Record turnout in India as 551 million vote: official

A record 551 million voters cast their ballots in India's general election which also saw the highest ever turnout rate of 66.38 percent, organisers of the contest said yesterday.
The number of voters going to the polls in the world's biggest election rose by 32.11 percent, shattering the previous record of 417 million set five years ago, Election Commission director general Akshay Rout told a press conference soon after the end of the final phase of voting.
"This is the highest ever turnout in India's national election history. These numbers may still go up marginally because of postal ballots and other factors," Rout told reporters in the capital New Delhi.
Around 814 million people had been eligible to vote in the marathon contest which began on April 7 before wrapping up yesterday in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
The turnout rate of 66.38 percent beat the previous record of 64.01 set in 1984 and was a major jump from the last general election in 2009 when 58.19 percent of the electorate voted.
The commission said that there had been an increase in turnout in 32 of India's 35 polling regions compared to 2009, including in the state of Jammu and Kashmir where there had been calls from separatist groups for a boycott.
P.K. Dash, another senior commission official, put the turnout at 50.10 percent for what is India's only Muslim majority state, significantly higher than the 39.68 percent recorded in 2009.
The commission also announced massive seizures of alcohol and cash which had been allegedly offered as an inducement to voters.
"We seized more than 313 crore rupees (around 52 million dollars) in cash during the election campaign. Besides cash, we also seized 22.5 million litres of liquor," Dash added.
The commission also revealed that it was investigating 3,553 allegations of "paid news" over complaints that journalists had accepted cash or other favours in return for positive coverage for particular candidates.