How is the President of India elected? Outline the salient characteristics of the electoral college of the Indian President. (UPSC CSE Mains 2017 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 1)
- The Indian President is elected through an electoral college system, wherein the votes are cast bynational and State-level lawmakers.
- The elections are conducted and overseen by the Election Commission (EC) of India.
- The electoral college is made up of all the elected members of theUpper and Lower Houses of Parliament (Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha MPs), and the elected Members of the Legislative Assemblies of States and Union Territories (MLAs).
Procedure
- Before the voting, comes the nomination stage,where the candidate intending to stand in the election, files the nomination along with a signed list of 50 proposers and 50 seconders.
- These proposers and seconders can be anyone from the total members of the electoral college from the State and national level.
- The rule for securing 50 proposers and seconders was implemented when the EC noticed, in 1974,that several candidates, many without even a bleak chance of winning, would file their nominations to contest the polls.
- An elector cannot propose or second the nomination of more than one candidate.
Value of each vote
- A vote cast by each MP or MLA is not calculated as one vote.
- Thefixed value of each vote by an MP of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha is 700.
- Meanwhile, the vote value of each MLA differs from State to State based on a calculation that factors in its population vis-a-vis the number of membersin its legislative Assembly.
- As per the Constitution (Eighty-fourth Amendment) Act 2001, currently, the population of States is taken from the figures of the 1971 Census. This will change when the figures of the Census taken after the year 2026 are published.
- The value of each MLA’s vote is determined by dividing the population of the State by the number of MLAsin its legislative Assembly, and the quotient achieved is further divided by 1000.
- Uttar Pradesh for instance, has the highest vote value for each of its MLAs, at 208. The value of one MLA’s vote in Maharashtra is 175,while that in Arunachal Pradesh is just 8.
To secure a victory
- A nominated candidate does not secure victory based on a simple majoritybut through a system of bagging a specific quota of votes. While counting, the EC totals up all the valid votes cast by the electoral college through paper ballots and to win, the candidate must secure 50% of the total votes cast + 1.
- Unlike general elections, where electors vote for a single party’s candidate, the voters of the electoral college write the names of candidates on the ballot paper in the order of preference.
- The President’s electionis held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote and the voting is by secret ballot.
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