The country in which the highest number of votes were made for a national general election is India. Between 16 April and 13 May 2009, 417.2 million votes were cast in five phases to elect the 543 members of the 15th Lok Sabha (the House of the People, which is the lower house of the Indian legislature). Vote counting took place on 16 May and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by the Indian National Congress, was declared the winner on the same day. The average election turnout over all 5 phases was around 59.7%. The country is referred to as the world's largest democracy, with approximately 714 million people eligible to vote in 2009. The four waves of voting were on 16, 22/23 and 30 April followed by 7 and 13 May.By constitutional requirement, elections to the Lok Sabha (lower house of the parliament of India) must be held every five years, or whenever Parliament is dissolved by the President of India.