Elections - Ballots - 900 AD

With the elections having passed off peacefully, Jus thought of blogging abt the earliest known election.

It is said that during the times of Paranthaka Chola I (900 AD), in Uthiramerur village(near kanchipuram, vandavasi), people actually had a voting system. The Kudavolai system consisted of people writing the names of people they thought were appropriate posts in the village administration on palm leaves or 'olai) and dropping them in a big pot or 'kudam'. The elders counted the leaves to install the one with the most leaves and installed him to that post. This was the first recorded instance of 'free and fair elections'.

And Lo! there is this Blog called kudavolai.blogspot.comcovering the Tamilnadu elections.

Varalaaru.com has an indepth analysis on the Kudavolai system.