By Gerry Shih and Anant Gupta
SURAT, India — As India wraps up a seven-week-long marathon election, reports of irregularities have reached a level not seen in decades. Across the country, supporters of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have been accused by their opponents of working with local authorities to suppress turnout among voters or to remove opposition candidates from the ballot altogether.
In the ancient diamond trading hub of Surat, the election ended before it began. After all eight opposition candidates dropped out under questionable circumstances, local officials declared a winner by default: the candidate from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP.
Independent political analysts say there is no evidence to indicate systemic vote-rigging, and if Modi is declared the winner Tuesday as expected, his victory would be legitimate. But in the world’s largest democracy, the rash of irregularities at the local level — and the brazenness of several incidents publicized by BJP supporters themselves — have alarmed political observers who say India’s ruling party is increasingly wielding state power to tilt the democratic playing field in its favor.
During its previous decade in power, the Modi government has cracked down on critical media outlets, shut down nonprofits, and squeezed opposition politicians by targeting them for criminal investigations and imprisonment, “but the sanctity of elections itself has largely been protected,” said Maya Tudor, a political scientist at Oxford University.
This story was originally published in washingtonpost.com. Read the full story here.
