The largest "election" ever in human history... is in India

I am not suggesting there is no fake voting in India, I am sure there is. But I don't think it changes the ultimate result, since it's a parliamentary system.

Considering India is a developing country, India's track record in holding relatively secure elections is amazing to me. I grew up in India, left India when I was 24, and have lived here for the past 21 years.

I remember the violence and fake voting (it was actually something called booth capturing) that was rampant when I was a kid. Things have improved a whole lot since then.

The reason why the election is so long is because it happens in stages/rounds. Each seat (equivalent to an US congressional district) gets to vote on one specific day, and it is only in person. No mail in voting or anything like that. Only a subset of seats vote on one round so that all the peace-keeping resources line army, local police, para-military forces can all be deployed in a concentrated manner.

I think it’s interesting that Iraq has more secure elections than the United States and likely India does, too.