Narendra Modi Leads Julian Assange in TIMEs Person of the Year Poll
Narendra Modi was leading the TIME Person of the Year Reader's Poll Thursday with 11 of the vote to date, compared to Julian Assange who was in second place with 9. In recent months, the Indian prime minister has taken the decisive action of withdrawing the country's high-value currency notes in a move against corruption, and has ratified the Paris Climate Change Agreement. Assanges organization WikiLeaks was responsible for releasing leaked internal documents through the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign. Assange himself has been living in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for the past four years. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are currently polling at 8, while U.S. gymnast Simone Biles and Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda are just behind on 6. Other big names on the list include North Korea's Kim Jong-Un and U.S. President Barack Obama, both currently polling at 1, and singer Beyonc Knowles, who is currently polling at 2. As always, the ultimate decision about the person of the year is made by TIME's editors who select the person or persons who most affected the new and our lives, for good or ill, and who embodied what was important that year. TIME's annual reader poll is an important window into who you think most shaped 2016. Voting on the reader's choice poll ends Dec. 4, at 1159 p.m. ET. TIME's Person of the Year will be revealed on Dec. 7.