Tight security as India wraps up poll marathon

Police armed with video cameras and soldiers with automatic rifles were among a million security forces on alert in 16 Indian states for today’s voting in the fifth and final phase of three-week Parliament elections in the world’s largest democracy.

Although exit polls and voter surveys placed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s National Democratic Alliance far ahead of the main opposition Congress party and its allies, most pollsters have predicted that the 11-party coalition will fall short of the 272-seat majority mark it needs in the lawmaking lower house of Parliament, the Lok Sabha.