Lok Sabha Elections 2019: “confident in fairness of Indian elections, will work with winner”: US

PTI, May 23, 2019, 9:26 AM IST

Washington: The United States on Wednesday said that it was confident in the fairness and integrity of the Indian elections and would work with whoever is the winner.

“I would say from the US perspective, we are very confident in the fairness and the integrity of the Indian elections, and we will obviously work with whoever is the victor and whatever the outcome is there,” State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said.

Unlike other countries, the US does not send its election observers to India because of the strong independent credentials of the Election Commission of India.

“We have a very strong relationship and a lot of co-operation with the Indian government on a full range of issues, and the Secretary (of State, Mike Pompeo) has said numerous times that we have a true strategic partner in India,” Ms Ortagus said.

The diplomat praised India and its people for carrying out such a massive exercise peacefully, describing it as fascinating. “Someone pointed this out to me today that India’s election is the largest exercise in democracy in human history,” she said.

“I think with everything going on in the world, that’s a thing that we can pause and think about and certainly commend the Indian people,” Ms Ortagus added.