Explained: Who Can Become The President Of India And How The Person Is Elected
The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule of the Presidential election later on Thursday. The tenure of President Ram Nath Kovind is scheduled to end on July 24, hence the process of the election of the President and the counting of votes must be complete before that.
The tenure of President Ram Nath Kovind is scheduled to end on July 24, hence the process of the election of the President and the counting of votes must be complete before that.
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The election for the next President of India will be held on July 18, the Election Commission said on June 9. The counting will take place on July 21, the poll panel said.
Who elects India's President?
The President of India, like any other democracy, is elected indirectly by the people of the country. The electoral college is used in the Presidential elections, which means that all of the representatives elected by the people of India to various public offices at the state and national levels vote to elect the President.
An electoral college consisting of the elected members of both Houses of Parliament and the elected members of the Legislative Assemblies of states and the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry.
There are 776 members of Parliament (543 Lok Sabha MPs, 233 Rajya Sabha MPs) and 4,809 members of state legislative legislatures in the electoral college. The electoral college has a total of 10,86,431 votes. Each elector's vote (MP/MLA) has a predetermined value.
The value is set at 708 for each MP. This figure is calculated for an MLA using a formula based on the population of the state he or she represents (as of the 1971 Census). As a result, the value varies per state.
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For instance, each MLA from Uttar Pradesh, the most populated state, has the highest value of 208 of all the states. The 403 Uttar Pradesh legislators are worth a total of 83,824. The state's 80 MPs had a total vote value of 56,640, bringing the total value of votes cast by MPs and MLAs in the state to 1.4 lakh, giving them a weightage of roughly 12.7 percent.
The vote value for an MLA in smaller states like Punjab is 118. It is 64 degrees in Uttarakhand and 20 degrees in Goa. Punjab has a total value of 13,572, Uttarakhand 4,480, and Goa 800. MLAs in respective states and Union territories, as well as MPs in Parliament, are given ballot papers (green for MPs and pink for MLAs) to cast their votes when the nominations are filed. Due to the absence of a legislative assembly in Jammu and Kashmir, the value of a Member of Parliament's vote is anticipated to fall to 700 from 708 in the presidential elections slated this year, as reports the PTI.
Who can become the President of India?
Anyone who is an Indian citizen and meets certain additional requirements is eligible to become President.
A candidate for President must be 35 years old and qualified for election as a member of the Lok Sabha, or House of the People. The candidate cannot hold an office of profit. Furthermore, the Presidential candidate must have the formal support of at least 50 proposers and seconders, who can be state or national public officials. This regulation was implemented to prevent fake nominations by ensuring that candidates with no possibility of winning do not apply for the position of President.
Procedure of voting
A single transferable vote is used in the presidential election, which follows the proportional representation system. There are no election symbols on the ballot paper. On the ballot paper, there are two columns. The names of the candidates are listed in the first column. The order of preference is listed in the second column.
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A member of the electoral college votes by entering figure 1 next to the contestant's name in the area provided. The voter can indicate as many consecutive preferences on the voting paper as he or she likes by writing the numbers 2, 3, 4, and so on next to the names of the contenders. No ballot paper is deemed invalid just because all of the electoral college member's preferences are not marked.
Despite the fact that there have only been 14 Presidents since Dr. Rajendra Prasad won the first two elections, the Presidential election in 2022 will be the 16th for the highest constitutional post in India. President of India elections have previously taken place in 1952, 1957, 1962, 1967, 1969, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012, and 2017.
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