India’s election kicks off Friday with nearly 1 billion voters

It’s the final countdown to the start of the world’s largest election. Nearly 1 billion people are eligible to vote. Polling will be conducted in seven phases with a winner declared only on June 4th.

A total of 970 million people are eligible to vote in the election – more than the populations of the US, European Union and Russia combined. There will be more than a million polling stations in operation staffed by 15 million poll workers, according to India’s election commission. The Guardian meanwhile reports that many consider Narendra Modi’s re-election a foregone conclusion, owing to both the premier’s robust popularity a decade after taking office and a glaringly uneven playing field.

His opponents have been hamstrung by infighting and what critics say are politically motivated legal investigations aimed at hobbling any challengers to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Meanwhile, more than half the world’s population will go to the polls this year, in what observers call a major test for democracy. The Globe and Mail further reports that an estimated four billion people in more than 50 countries, including Namibia, are expected to head to the polls, according to an estimate by The Economist. It is the first time in history that so many people will have the opportunity to put a mark on a ballot in a single year. Those elections also include some of the world’s biggest and most populated countries: India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, Mexico, the United States, as well as the European Union.