Extreme Hot Weather Kills 33 Indian Election Voting Officers, Gets $18,000 Compensation

UNSPLASH/Mumbai ILLUSTRATION, India

JAKARTA - India's extreme weather hot temperature killed 77 people over the past 10 days, including dozens of polling officers, when the vote ended in the world's biggest election.

India has had a hot summer with some Delhi capitals recording the highest temperature ever in the country at 49.9 degrees Celsius (121.8 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday last week when voters started voting for six weeks of elections.

33 polling officers were recorded dead in one day in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, chief election officer in the state, Navideep Rinwa told reporters on Sunday. "Each of their families will receive USD 18,000 as compensation," he said as quoted by CNN, Monday, June 3.

Before the vote began, the commission announced several steps to take into account high temperatures during the vote, such as providing water at polling stations and setting up tents for shelter.

As a home to more than 1.4 billion people, about 969 million Indians have the right to vote for them in elections more than a combined population of North America and the European Union. About 642 million people attended, the highest number ever participated, Chairman of the General Elections Commission Rajiv Kumar said at a press conference on Monday, June 3.

Voters and election officials have experienced an extreme heat period since the vote opened on April 19. The poll shows Prime Minister Narenda Modi will get a third term in a row, and the results are expected to be obtained on Tuesday, June 4.

To hold large-scale elections, India relies on a network of about 15 million voting officers and security staff, some of which election officials travel by road, boats, camels, trains, and helicopters to reach residents throughout the vast country.

However, the incident was damaged by the deaths of dozens of voting officers and voters. About 20 people were reported to have died as a result of the'sun' between May 31 and June 2 in the eastern state of Odisha, according to the state's disaster management agency.

"In Odisha we have experienced extreme temperatures in recent days, the heat here is not as high as in northern India, but here high humidity is also one of the factors," Satyabrata Sahu, commissioner of Odisha's special assistance to CNN.