President of India-Election Process

Election Process

The President is chosen by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of both houses of Parliament, the elected members of the State Legislative Assemblies and the elected members of the legislative assemblies of the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry.

The nomination of a candidate for election to the office of the President must be subscribed by at least 50 electors as proposers and 50 electors as seconders. Each candidate has to make a security deposit of 15,000 in the Reserve Bank of India. The security deposit is liable to be forfeited in case the candidate fails to secure one-sixth of the votes polled.

The election is held in accordance to the system of Proportional representation by means of Single transferable vote method. The Voting takes place by secret ballot system. The manner of election of President is provided by Article 55 of the Constitution.

Each elector casts a different number of votes. The general principle is that the total number of votes cast by Members of Parliament equals the total number of votes cast by State Legislators. Also, legislators from larger states cast more votes than those from smaller states. Finally, the number of legislators in a state matters; if a state has few legislators, then each legislator has more votes; if a state has many legislators, then each legislator has fewer votes.

The actual calculation for votes cast by a particular state is calculated by dividing the state's population by 1000, which is divided again by the number of legislators from the State voting in the Electoral College. This number is the number of votes per legislator in a given state. For votes cast by those in Parliament, the total number of votes cast by all state legislators is divided by the number of members of both Houses of Parliament. This is the number of votes per member of either house of Parliament.

Although Indian presidential elections involve actual voting by MPs and MLAs, they tend to vote for the candidate supported by their respective parties.

Oath or affirmation

The President is required to make and subscribe in the presence of the Chief Justice of India  (or in his absence, the senior-most Judge of the Supreme Court), an oath or affirmation that he/she shall protect, preserve and defend the Constitution as follows:

“I, (name), do swear in the name of God (or solemnly affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President (or discharge the functions of the President) of the Republic of India, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect and defend the Constitution and the law, and that I will devote myself to the service and well-being of the people of Republic of India.”

— Article 60, Constitution of India

Electoral College:-

The college is made up of the following:

§                    elected members of the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Parliament of India );

§                    elected members of the Lok Sabha  (lower house of the Parliament of India);

§                    elected members of each state Legislative Assembly ; and

§                    elected members of each union territory possessing an assembly (Delhi and Puducherry)

 

Weighting of votes

The value of votes cast by elected members of the state legislative assemblies and both houses of parliament were decided as per the provisions of article 55(2) of the Constitution of India. The details of number of voters and votes for this presidential election are given below.

§                    Presidential elections in India involve proportional representation  from respective states. The number of votes assigned to a particular voter from a state assembly is decided as follows.

 In other words, value of a MLA vote is no. of thousands of people represented by him. Thus, indirectly entire population cast vote. As per this calculation following are the number of votes for respective states.

§                    Total Members of Parliament- Lok Sabha (543) + Rajya Sabha (233) = 776

 The value of a MP's vote is calculated by dividing the total value of all MLAs' votes by the number of MPs.

Value of each vote = 549474/776 = 708

Total value of votes of Parliament = 549408

§         Total number of electors = MLAs + MPs = 4896

§         Total number of votes = 1098882

 1971 census is taken in calculating the electoral college under article 55

Part V of the Indian Constitution deals with the President of India

Article 52 à The President of India

Article 53 à Executive Power of the Union

Article 54 à Election of President

Article 55 à Manner of election of President

Article 56 à Term of office of President

Article 57 à Eligibility for re-election

Article 58 à Qualifications for elections as President

Article 59 à Conditions for President’s Office

Article 60 à Oath or affirmation by the President

Article 61 à Procedure for impeachment of the President

Article 62 à Time of holding election to fill vacancy in the office of person elected to fill casual vacancy

Article 71 à Matters relating to, or connected with, the election of a President or Vice-President

Article 72 à Power of President to grant pardons, etc… and to suspend, remit or commute sentences in certain cases {72 (1) (c)}

Article 73 à Extent of executive power of the Union

Article 74 à The President has to exercise his powers and functions with the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers headed by the PM