In the biggest week in the 'year of the election' so far, Modi's win matters the most
India's election result - which will see incumbent Narendra Modi secure a third term but with a weakened position in parliament - is hugely significant for Australia.
It has been the biggest week so far in the global ‘year of the election’, with the ballots of more than 751 million voters being tallied up across three of the world's most strategically and culturally significant democracies.
There has been a landmark result in Mexico – which has resulted in the country’s first female president, and its first of Jewish heritage, with Claudia Sheinbaum replacing her mentor Andrés Manuel López. In South Africa, the African National Congress – the party of Nelson Mandela – lost its iron grip over the country's parliament, and now needs to strike a minority government for the first time since Apartheid.
But in Canberra, one result will be more keenly scrutinised than the others: the Indian general election, which is also the world’s largest exercise in democracy. More than 642 million people took part in voting, a process which took a month-and-a-half to complete.
As the results trickled in on Tuesday evening Australian time, it was clear Indians had delivered a major surprise. Prime minister Narendra Modi had been bullish about the prospects of his dominant ruling party – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – winning an unprecedented 400 seats. But it fell well short of that aim and will now need to govern in coalition.
