The term of office of the present President of India is upto 24th
July, 2012. Thus a election is due to held for
electing a new President before the 24th July, 2012.
Under the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 4 of the
President and Vice-President Elections Act, 1952, the notification under
sub-section (1) of section 4 of the said Act calling the election can be issued
by the Election Commission on or after the sixtieth day before the expiry of
the term of office of outgoing President.
That is, the notification containing the programme of election to
the office of the President, can be issued by the
Election Commission on any day after 25th May, 2012.
The election to the Office of the President, to be held in the next,
will be the fourteenth of its kind. The earlier elections to this office were
held in 1952, 1957, 1962, 1967, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002
and 2007.
CONSTITUTIONAL
PROVISIONS:-
The President of India is elected by the Members of an Electoral
College consisting of (a) the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and
(b) the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of the States [including
National Capital Territory of Delhi and the Union Territory of Puducherry vide the Constitution (Seventieth Amendment)
Act, 1992 (Article 54). The nominated members of either House of Parliament or
the Legislative Assemblies of State are not eligible to be included in the
Electoral College.
Detailed provisions regarding the election are
contained in the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Act, 1952 (No.31
of 1952) and the rules made thereunder, viz., “The
Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974”.
The manner of voting in the Presidential Election is contained in
Rule 17 of the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Elections Rules, 1974.
The Constitution (Eighty-fourth Amendment) Act, 2001 provides that
until the relevant population figures for the first census to be taken after
the year 2026 have been published, the population of the States for the
purposes of calculation of value of votes for the Presidential Election shall
mean the population as ascertained at the 1971-census.
Total Value of votes of all members of each State Assembly is worked
out by multiplying the number of elective seats in the Assembly by the number
of votes for each member, for example 294x148=43,512 for Andhra Pradesh. The
total value of votes of all the States added together is divided by the total
number of elected members of Parliament (Lok Sabha 543 + Rajya Sabha 233) to get the value of votes per each Member of
Parliament.
SYSTEM OF PROPORTIONAL
REPRESENTATION BY MEANS OF SINGLE TRANSFERABLE VOTE.
The election shall be held in accordance with the system of
Proportional Representation by means of the single transferable vote and the
voting at such election shall be by secret ballot.
The ballot paper does not contain any election symbol. There will be
two columns in the ballot paper. Column 1 of the ballot paper contains the
heading “Name of Candidate” and column 2 contains the heading “Mark
order of preference”.
VALUE OF VOTES:-
Each Elector shall have as many preferences as there are candidates,
but no ballot paper shall be considered invalid solely on the ground that all
such preferences are not marked.
The value of vote of each elector is pre-determined. For example,
the value of vote of each Member of Parliament is 708. The value of vote of
each Member of the Legislative Assembly of Uttar Pradesh is 208 and that of
Sikkim is 7. Thus the value of votes for the Members of each Legislative
Assembly varies.
QUOTA FOR ELECTION:-
After calculating the total value of votes
polled by each candidate, the Returning Officer totals up the value of all
valid votes polled. The quota for declaring a candidate as elected is
determined by dividing the total value of valid votes by 2 and adding one to
the quotient, ignoring the remainder, if any. For example, assuming the total
value of valid votes polled by all candidates is 1,00,001.
The quota required for getting elected is: -
1,00,001 + 1 = 50,000.50 + 1 (Ignore.50)
2
Quota = 50,000+1 = 50,001
After
ascertaining the quota, the Returning Officer has to see whether any candidate
secured the quota for being declared as elected on the basis of the total value
of first preference votes polled by him/her.
If no
candidate gets the quota on the basis of first preference votes, then the
Returning Officer proceeds further to second round of counting during which the
candidate having lowest value of votes of first preference is excluded and his
votes are distributed among the remaining candidates according to the second
preference marked on these ballot papers. The other continuing candidates
received the votes of excluded candidate at the same value at which he/she
received them in the first round of counting.
The
Returning Officer will go on excluding the candidates with lowest number of
votes in subsequent rounds of counting till either one of the continuing
candidates gets the required quota or till only one candidate remains in the
field as the continuing candidate and shall declare him/her as elected.
ELIGIBILITY FOR ELECTION
No person
shall be eligible for election as President unless he -
(1) is a citizen of India;
(2) has completed the age of 35 years; and
(3) is qualified for election as a member of the House of the
People (Article 58).
A person
shall not be eligible for election as President 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 State
Governments.
However, a
person shall not be deemed to hold any office of profit by reason only that he
is the President or Vice-President of the Union or the Governor of any State or
is a Minister either for the Union or for any State.
NOMINATION AND SECURITY DEPOSIT
For a valid
nomination, the following qualifications and requirements are to be satisfied:
(i) The candidate should be a citizen of India;
(ii) He should have completed the
age of 35 years; and
(iii) He should be qualified for
election as a member of Lok Sabha.
a) The candidate shall
not hold any office of profit under the Government of India or the Govt. of any
State or under any local or other authority subject to the control of any of
the said Governments.
b) A nomination paper of a candidate for the
election in the prescribed form (Form 2 appended to 1974 rules) has to be
subscribed by at least fifty electors as proposers and at least fifty electors
as seconders. The nomination paper must be presented
in person to the Returning Officer, either by the candidate himself or by any
of his proposers or seconders.
c) The security deposit for the
election is Rs.15,000/- which will be required to be
made along with the nomination paper. This amount can either be deposited in
cash with the Returning Officer at the time of presentation of the nomination
paper or receipt showing that such amount has been deposited by the candidate
or on his behalf in the Reserve Bank of India or in a Government Treasury can
be furnished along with the nomination paper.
d) Each
nomination paper shall be accompanied by a certified copy of the entry relating
to the candidate in the electoral roll for the Parliamentary constituency where
he is registered as an elector.
e)
No elector shall subscribe, whether as proposer or as seconder,
more than one nomination paper at the same election and if he does so, his
signature shall be inoperative on any paper other than the one first delivered
to the Returning Officer.
f) The Returning Officer shall
not accept any nomination paper, which is presented on any day, appointed for
that purpose, before 11.00 a.m. and after 3.00 p.m.
TOTAL ELECTORS
The total number of
members in the Electoral College for the Presidential election in 2012 is 4896,
as detailed below
|
HOUSE
|
SEATS
|
(a)
|
Rajya Sabha
|
233
|
(b)
|
Lok Sabha
|
543
|
(c)
|
State Assemblies
|
4120
|
|
Total
|
4896
|
RETURNING OF OFFICER/ASSISTANT
RETURNING OFFICERS
By convention, the Secretary General, Lok Sabha and the Secretary
General, Rajya Sabha are appointed as the Returning Officers on rotation basis.
For the 2007 Presidential Election, the Secretary General, Lok
Sabha was appointed as Returning Officer. Therefore,
for the 2012 Presidential Election, the Secretary General, Rajya
Sabha has been appointed as the Returning Officer.
Two other senior officers of Rajya Sabha Secretariat and the Secretaries and one more senior
officer of Legislative Assemblies of all States including NCT of Delhi and
Union Territory of Puducherry have also been
appointed as the Assistant Returning Officers.
PLACES OF POLL
A Room in
the Parliament House in New Delhi and a room in all State Legislative Assembly
Secretariats are generally designated as places of poll. The Members of
Parliament normally vote in New Delhi and the members of the State Legislative
Assemblies, including the members of the Legislative Assemblies of NCT of Delhi
and Union Territory of Puducherry, normally vote at
the place fixed in each State Capital. However, facilities are provided by the
Commission for any Member of Parliament to vote in the capital of his State and
similarly if any Member of any State Legislative Assembly unavoidably stays in
Delhi on the date of poll, he is given the facility to vote at the polling
booth set up in the Parliament House. However, due intimation of such intention
to vote at a place other than the place where a member is designated to vote
must be received in the Commission well in advance to make necessary
arrangements.
RETURN OF FORFEITURE OF CANDIDATE’s
DEPOSIT
The deposit
shall be forfeited if the candidate is not elected and the number of valid
votes polled by him does not exceed one-sixth of the number of votes necessary
to secure return of a candidate at such election. In other cases, the deposit
will be returned to the candidate.
DISPUTE OVER ELECTION
(i) An
election petition calling in question an election to the office of the
President may be presented by any candidate at such election or by any twenty
or more electors joined together as petitioners.
(ii) The authority having jurisdiction to try an election petition
is the Supreme Court of India.
(iii) An election
petition shall be presented within 30 days from the date of publication of the
declaration
containing the name of the returned candidate.