Indian elections to cost 2.25 billion US dollars

This year's general election in India is to cost 2.25 billion US dollars, according to a study done by New Delhi based Center for Media Studies (CMS).

The total spending by the Election Commission (EC) of India alone on the five-phase parliamentary poll that concludes on May 10 works out to 1.2 billion US dollars - against 720 million US dollars in the last general election in 1999, the CMS's study said.

India has some 675 million voters. Thus, the EC's cost comes to a little over Rs 75 (around 1.6 US dollars) per registered voter, the Indo-Asian News Service quoted the study as saying on Saturday.

Nearly a fifth of the EC's cost, or about 225 million US dollars, is spent on Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) and polling booths. The EC spent 22 million US dollars to educate voters about the use of EVMs and on publicity. One-fifth of the total cost goes into personnel manning polling stations across the nation, the study noted.

The total expenditure of all candidates was estimated at 1.2 billion US dollars, although this figure does not include indirect expenditure outside the government and political parties.

India will complete its voting for this year's general elections with the fifth main phase on May 10, with votes counted and results published on May 13.