DATE=10/6/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDIA VOTE COUNT (L)
NUMBER=2-254707
BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE
DATELINE=NEW DELHI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: India's Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
has won re-election to parliament and his 22-party
ruling coalition has taken an early lead in vote
counting from India's mammoth month-long election.
Partial returns also indicate India's Congress Party
will gain seats. Correspondent Jim Teeple reports
about 10-percent of India's voters cast ballots
electronically and while those results will be known
soon, a full count will take at least another 24-
hours.
Text: Atal Behari Vajpayee coasted to victory in his
constituency in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh
state. The region sends 85 members to Parliament --
more than any other state.
Mr. Vajpayee's Bharatiya Janata Party swept all seven
parliamentary seats in greater New Delhi. In one New
Delhi constituency, the B-J-P faced a stiff challenge
from Congress Party candidate, Manmohan Singh, a
former Finance Minister and the architect of India's
economic reforms in the early 1990's.
Prime Minister Vajpayee lost a confidence measure by
one vote six-months ago in Parliament, forcing the
elections.
Thousands of police and paramilitary forces are
guarding about 13-hundred counting centers in more
than 500-districts. Ballots are dumped out of large
metal containers onto long tables where they are
counted by hand. Every ballot is opened and the
result marked on a chart. Representatives of
political parties sit near the tables watching every
move.
For the first time, India is making wide-use of
locally made electronic voting machines. India's
Election Commissioner, M-S Gill, says the new machines
have sped up the voting and counting process.
// GILL ACTUALITY //
They are very cheap, only several-thousand
rupees ($100). They run on batteries and not on
power, so there is no worry about power failure.
They are like little laptop computers, you do
not go to a polling station with a truck and big
boxes, and gunny bags and all the rest of the
nonsense we used to do.
// END ACT //
But the voting machines are only being used in 50-
districts, and only about 10-percent of the ballots
cast were registered electronically. Election
officials say most Indians live in rural areas where
electronic voting was not used, so the quick early
electronic vote tallies should not be taken as a final
result.
India's opposition Congress Party is hoping to gain
enough seats to make it the largest party in
Parliament. Early trends on Wednesday indicate The
Congress Party is picking up seats.
// OPT // A senior leader of the Congress Party,
Parliament Member Madhavrao Scindia, says early
results show his party is picking up a greater
percentage of the vote than expected.
// SCINDIA ACTUALITY //
The point of optimism for the Congress Party is
the rise in vote percentage of seven-percent.
This is very significant.
// END ACT // END OPT //
While early results show the Congress Party is picking
up seats, trends also show the B-J-P-led coalition
will have enough seats to form a government by wining
a narrow majority in India's 545-seat lower house of
Parliament.
// OPT // A senior B-J-P leader, Pramod Mahajan, says
his party has gained seats in every recent election
and even if coalition partners in the National
Democratic Alliance lose seats this year, the
coalition is optimistic about its future.
// MAHAJAN ACTUALITY //
Losing half a dozen seats does not make the N-D-
A's structure something totally new. But
definitely in the last successive four
elections, we are gaining from strength to
strength.
// END ACT // END OPT //
Election officials say about 55-percent of India's
more than 600-million voters cast ballots in staggered
voting which lasted five weeks. (SIGNED)
NEB/JLT/RAE
06-Oct-1999 07:46 AM EDT (06-Oct-1999 1146 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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