By Mustafa Caglayan
NEW YORK
India’s Prime Minister has won the TIME magazine's Person of the Year readers’ poll, a title designating the person who has most influenced the world in the past year.
The leader of India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, Narendra Modi became India's 15th prime minister in May after a marathon election campaign in which he portrayed himself as a pro-business candidate who would revive the country's flagging economy.
Modi received more than 16 percent of the almost 5 million votes cast on TIME.com’s voting portal.
Protesters who took to the streets in Ferguson, Missouri, after the Aug. 9 shooting death of an unarmed teenager by a white police officer placed second with 9 percent.
Hong Kong protest leader Joshua Wong; Pakistani human rights activist Malala Yousafzai; and the doctors and nurses treating Ebola in West Africa were the other candidates in the top five.
The results of the readers' poll are non-binding, as the Person of the Year is chosen by TIME’s editors. The news title will reveal its pick Wednesday.
The winner traditionally appears on the front cover of a special issue of the magazine.
In 2013, Pope Francis was bestowed the title, which has been given since 1927.
Other past winners include Mahatma Gandhi (1930), Adolf Hitler (1938), Queen Elizabeth II (1952), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963), U.S. President Barack Obama (2008) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (2012).
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