Preparations are on for second phase of polling
Campaigning ended on Tuesday evening for the second phase of the 17th Lok Sabha election in 97 constituencies, spread over 12 States and a Union Territory that will vote on Thursday. Counting of votes will take place on May 23, after all seven phases of voting are completed.
In the second phase, all 39 constituencies of Tamil Nadu, 14 in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, 3 each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one each in Manipur, Tripura and Puducherry will be voting.
Decisive victories in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are critical to the Congress-led alliance’s chances of unseating Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Karnataka is the only south Indian State where the BJP has a significant presence, and the party had won 17 of its 28 seats in 2014.
₹1.48 crore cash seized in Andipatti
A postal ballot paper for Andipatti assembly by-election, already marked for the AMMK candidate, was also found in the premises and was seized during the raid in Andipatti on Wednesday, April 17, 2019. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Income Tax department’s Investigations Wing on Wednesday seized a sum of ₹1.48 crore as accounted cash, even as police opened fire in the air to prevent miscreants from stealing the money.
The seizure came as the I-T department concluded their searches at Andipatti, Theni.
B. Murali Kumar, Director General I-T (INV), Chennai, said, “Last night’s search operations in Andipatti in Theni district, Tamil Nadu, concluded at 5.30 a.m. today. Unaccounted cash of ₹1.48 crore was seized.”
According to the taxmen, the cash was neatly packed in 94 packets/envelopes on which the ward number, number of voters and the amount at ₹300 per voter was written. All the wards mentioned are within the Andipatti assembly segment, which will go to polls on April 18.
Indonesia votes in its biggest-ever election
A man in Thor's costume shows his inked finger after casting at a polling station during election in Bali, Indonesia on Wednesday, April 17, 2019. | Photo Credit: Reuters
Voting is underway in Indonesia’s presidential and legislative elections after a campaign that that pitted the moderate incumbent against an ultra-nationalist former general.
Polling booths opened at 7 a.m. Wednesday in easternmost provinces and voting begins in the capital Jakarta two hours later. Indonesia has three time zones.
About 193 million people are eligible to vote in polls that will decide who leads the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.
Voting ends at 1 p.m. and so called “quick count” results are expected after about two hours.
The presidential race is a choice between five more years of the steady progress achieved under Indonesia’s first president from outside the Jakarta elite, Joko Widodo, or electing Prabowo Subianto, a former general from the era of the Suharto military dictatorship.
- AP
Nearly 300 arrested at London climate protests
Police officers remove protesters from a blockade on Waterloo Bridge during the second day of a coordinated protest by the Extinction Rebellion group on April 16, 2019 in London, England | Photo Credit: Getty Images
Police have arrested 290 people in two days of protests after climate-change activists blocked some of London's most important junctions including Oxford Circus and Marble Arch, causing traffic chaos.
The protests, led by British climate group Extinction Rebellion, brought parts of central London to a standstill again on Tuesday.
Extinction Rebellion, which generated headlines with a semi-nude protest in the House of Commons earlier this month, is demanding the government reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.
Police said they expected the demonstrations to continue in coming weeks and had to strike the right balance between allowing the right to peaceful protest while ensuring disruption was kept at a minimum.
- Reuters