India learns lessons from Australian election as part of exchange programme

MELBOURNE: India's electoral officials have visited Australia to observe the recent federal election in the country as part of an international election visits programme.

The two-week-long exchange programme was aimed at understanding and observing the entire federal election process in the country.

Akshay Rout, DG, Election Commission of India, cited that various issues including youth, women and urban engagement were challenges in the country.

"We have problems of youth engagement, women's engagements... so its good to pick up threads from here as well," he said.

India, which will be holding its national elections next year, has over 800 million voters.

"Its good to sit down and match what we can take from each other," Rout said.

Several Asian countries took part in the programme including Bhutan, one of the world's newest democracies.