This year, approximately 1.5 billion people have elected their representatives in 96 elections held in five continents. That’s the equivalent of 21% of the world population.
Asia, a continent with 4.427 billion people, saw some 800 million people casting a ballot. India (553 million voters) and Indonesia (134 million voters) accounted for almost half of the 2014 worldwide voters.
Around 50% of the people casting a ballot did so using a machine, either to capture or to count the vote. Last October, 115 Brazilians headed to the polls to elect new authorities. They did so using one of the most advance electronic voting platforms in the world. It comprises voting machine, biometric authentication devices, and a modern tallying and aggregation system which allows results to be published in real time. In the US, which held elections in November, all kinds of methods are employed to process the vote of citizens. However, the amount of people using voting machines or digital scanners is considerable. India, one of the frontrunners of election automation, used some 1.5 million voting machines to facilitate the election of its national assembly.
43 elections to choose a Legislative body were carried across the globe. From Algeria to Botswana, 14 elections occurred in Africa; six in Oceania, nine in Asia, and ten in America. Europe held in May the elections for the European Parliament. In addition, 14 nations held other kinds of elections, from federal, to presidential, parliamentary or referendum processes.
