Mysuru: Where would India feature on a list of the top 25 countries with the highest voter turnout in the world? In 2104 general elections, the average election turnout over all nine phases was around 66.38%, the highest ever in the history of Indian general elections. Compare this statistics with Belgium where 87.2% of voting-age citizens marked their ballots in 2014.
Low voter turnout in India is nothing new. Of course, it’s a problem almost as old as Indian democracy itself. Reasons include disenfranchisement of some voter groups, lack of trust in politicians and political institutions, not to mention a decline in civics education.
