The higher turnout in these state polls is in line with a general trend,both in India and across certain regions of the world. Today,23 countries even have compulsory voting laws,including Belgium,Singapore,Uruguay,the Philippines,Mexico,Ecuador and Australia. Voter turnout in the United States,however,is lower than in most other countries,despite the countrys historical tradition of free expression. The turnout in the 2009 Lok Sabha election was 58.8 per cent,more or less similar to turnouts in the seven national elections between 1989 and 2009. The 2014 general elections are expected to see a surge in voter numbers though. Malta On March 9,2013,the citizens of Malta cast their ballots for their national parliament and local governments. The elections were conducted using the single transferable vote (STV) system. Although Malta uses STV,it has a very rigid two-party system since 1971. The country,with a population of more than 400,000 people,is the smallest and one of the most successful economies in the Eurozone. Turnout was about 93 per cent,sky high in any other country but fairly low by Maltese standards. The 2013 turnout was the lowest since 1971. It was a massive landslide for the opposition Labour Party,which won the popular vote by 11.5 per cent and with a 35,000-vote margin over the governing Nationalist Party (NP). In the 2008 elections,the NP had won with a margin of only 1,000 votes out of nearly 300,000 votes. Israel In January 2013,Israelis voted in unexpectedly large numbers. Voter turnout was initially reported at 68 per cent of Israels 5.6 million eligible voters,but the figure turned out to actually be 73 per cent the highest turnout since 1999. Many observers were surprised as they had predicted a lower turnout than that in the last election in 2009,where 64.7 of eligible voters participated. But it was sunshine and unusually high temperatures that brought citizens to the polling booths. Yair Lapids party Yesh Atid (There is a Future) which was in the running for the first time,got 19 seats in the 120-seat parliament. Benjamin Netanyahus Likud-Beitenu won 31. Zimbabwe Zimbabweans voted in large numbers in the July 2013 presidential and parliamentary elections despite concerns about the credibility of the electoral process. The vote was relatively peaceful compared with the violent polls in 2008. This was only possible because of relaxed voter requirements. Voters were only required to use their national IDs in the absence of a voters roll,which enabled a number of unregistered,but ineligible voters,to cast their votes. This included almost three generations of voters who turned 18 years between 2008 and 2013. The incumbent President,Robert Mugabe,was re-elected,whilst his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party won a two-thirds majority. This was the first election held under the new constitution approved in a referendum in March 2013. Several critics claim that President Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party allegedly rigged the elections. Iran Hassan Rouhani was declared the winner of the June 14,2013, presidential election with 50.7 per cent of the votes in a poll which saw 72.7 per cent voter turnout. Iran has more than 50 million eligible voters. Although Irans economy was staggering with yet another round of sanctions,Irans supreme leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei and other top officials had called for a high turnout as a way to show defiance towards the West. In the 2009 presidential election,Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the election with 62 per cent of the votes cast. That year,the voter turnout was the highest Iran ever had at 84.77 per cent. Compiled by Aleesha Matharu
