Presidential Election in India

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Next month, the elected MLAs and MPs across the country are going to vote to elect India’s 15th President.

About 

• Article 62(1) of the Constitution: Under this, “an election to fill a vacancy caused by the expiration of the term of office of President shall be completed before the expiration of the term”. 
• The tenure of the current President ends on July 25.

Election Process

• Electoral College: 
  • The President is elected by an electoral college consisting of MPs of both Houses of Parliament and MLAs of the states of Delhi and Puducherry. 
  • Nominated members of Rajya Sabha, Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, and members of state Legislative Councils, are not part of the electoral college.

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• Weighted votes: 
  • The votes are weighted, their value determined by the population of each state as per Census 1971. 
  • MPs: The process demands that the 776 MPs (543 in Lok Sabha, 233 in Rajya Sabha) should contribute the same total of votes as the MLAs. 
    • Thus, the value of each MP’s vote is 5.43 lakh divided by 776, rounded off to 700. The combined electoral pool from the Assemblies and Parliament adds up to 10.86 lakh.
  • MLA’s: The value of each MLAs vote varies from a high of 208 in Uttar Pradesh to a low of 7 in Sikkim. 
    • This means that UP’s 403 MLAs contribute 208 × 403 = 83,824 votes to the electoral pool, while Sikkim’s 32 MLAs contribute 32 × 7 = 224 votes. 
    • The weighted votes from all the Assemblies add up to 5.43 lakh.

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• Article 55 of the Constitution: As for as practicable, there has to be uniformity in the scale of representation of the different states at the election of the President. For the purpose of securing such uniformity among the States, the number of votes to which each State is entitled is determined as follows:
  • Every elected member of the legislative assembly of a State shall have as many votes as there are multiples of one thousand in the quotient obtained by dividing the population of the state by the total number of elected members of the Assembly;
  • If after taking the said multiples of one thousand, the remainder is not less than five hundred, then the vote of each member shall be further increased by one;
  • Each elected member of either House of Parliament shall have such number of votes as may be obtained by dividing the total number of votes assigned to the members of the State Legislation Assemblies by the total number of elected members of both the House of Parliament fractions exceeding one-half being counted as one and & other fractions being disregarded.
• Proportional Representation: The election of the President shall be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting shall be by secret ballot.
• The term of office of President: The President shall hold office for a term of five years from the date on which he enters upon his office.
• Situation where the President demits office before 5 years: There will be two such situations:
  • The first is when the President resigns his office by writing under his hand addressed to the Vice-President and 
  • The second when the President is removed from office by impeachment for violation of the constitution. 
• Impeachment: According to Article 61 of the Constitution, when a President is to be impeached for violation of the Constitution, the charge shall be preferred by either House of Parliament. 
  • No such change shall be preferred unless:
    • The proposal to prefer such change is contained in a resolution which has been moved after at least fourteen days’ notice in writing signed by not less than one-fourth of the total number of members of the House has been given of their intention to move the resolution, and 
    • Such a resolution has been passed by a majority of not less than two third of the total membership of the House. 
• Eligibility for second term: According to Article 57 of the Constitution, a President is eligible for re-election to that office. 
• Qualifications of President: According to Article 58 of the Constitution, no person shall be eligible for election as President unless:
  • he is a citizen of India, 
  • has completed the age of thirty-five years and 
  • is qualified for election as a member of the House of the People. 
  • A person shall not be eligible if he holds any office of profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said Government. 
• Can a Member of Parliament or the State Legislature become the President?
  • The President shall nor be a member of either House of Parliament or of a House of the Legislature of any state and if any such member is elected President he shall be claimed to have vacated his seat in that House on the date on which he enters upon office as President. 

Challenging the Election of President

• According to Article 71 of the Constitution, all doubts and disputes arising out of or in connection with the election of a President or Vice-President shall be inquired into and decided by the Supreme Court. 
• Further, according to section 14 of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952, an election petition can be filed before the Supreme Court. 

Source: IE