Guterres congratulates Indian people for ‘massive exercise of democracy’

UNITED NATIONS — UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres congratulates the people of India for the “massive exercise of democracy”, his Associate Spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino said on Tuesday.

“We, of course, want to congratulate the people of India for engaging in this massive exercise of democracy as they are the largest democratic elections in the world,” she said.

Since the tallying of results was on, she said: “We can’t officially comment until all the voting has all the counting has been done” on its outcome.

“And we hope to have a much more official statement once everything has been said,” she added.

Customarily the Secretary-General sends a message of congratulations to leaders when their elections are officially announced. At the time of noon briefing in New York, 19 results were still pending while Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance had won 292 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha assuring him of a third term. The opposition opposition INDIA bloc had won 232 seats in the election.