CONSTITUTION OF INDIA NOTES

CONSTITUTION OF INDIA || PRESIDENT

ELECTION ||

The entire conduct of the Presidential election is held under the watchful eye of the Election
Commission of India, which has the following responsibilities:
 Preparation of the electoral roll.
 Planning and execution of the electoral process.
 Ensuring that the election is conducted in a free and fair manner.
 Calculation of votes and declaration of the winning candidate.

Qualifying criteria for President

Any individual wishing to contest for the post of President must first ensure that he/she
qualifies for the position, the criteria of which are laid down in Article 58 of the Constitution.
These are:
 Must be a citizen of India.
 Must have completed 35 years of age.
 Must be eligible to be a member of the Lok Sabha.
 Must not hold 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 Governments (Exceptions are the offices of President and Vice President,
Governor of any State and Ministers of Union or State).
Explanation of Qualifying Criteria
Who is eligible to be a member of the Lok Sabha?
A Presidential candidate is eligible to be a member of the Lok Sabha when he
conforms to the criteria which are laid down in the Indian Constitution (Articles 84
and 102) and the Representation of People Act, 1951 (Sections 8 to 10-A).

What is an office of profit?

The concept of “office of profit” was devised to maintain the independence of legislature and
prevent the conflict of interest that would arise if an individual was both a member of the
legislature as well as working in an executive role that would accrue to him any significant
pecuniary gains. Under Indian law, an office of profit is any position or appointment made
by or under the authority of the government – be it the Central Government, State

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Governments or local authorities. In case someone is the holder of such an office, he would
first have to resign before contesting an election for President.

Eligibility Criteria for Electors

The President is the official Head of State, and is chosen with the help of an indirect election
process by an electoral college consisting of the elected members of the Parliament of India
and the Legislative Assemblies of the States and the Union Territories of Delhi and
Puducherry.

What is an indirect election?

A direct election occurs when the citizens of a country vote directly for their representatives.
For instance, the election process to the Lok Sabha is an example of a direct election.

An indirect election, on the other hand, is a process in which the ultimate voters (i.e. the
citizens) don’t get to choose the candidate, but rather choose electors who will subsequently
make the decision for them.

What is the exact composition of the Presidential Electoral College?

While the Electoral College comprises of legislators, not all members of the legislative branch
are eligible to be electors in the Presidential election. Legislators can be grouped into two
categories based on how they ascend to their position:

Elected members:
These are legislators that have been chosen after undergoing the process of an election. In
the case of the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, this refers to individuals who
have become members as a result of the general elections and state legislative elections,
respectively, and in the case of the Rajya Sabha it refers to individuals who have become MPs
after an election has been held in their relevant State Assemblies.

Nominated members:
These are legislators that are appointed to their post by the President or Governor (as the
case may be) without undergoing an electoral process. Nominated members include the
following:

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 12 members nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the Central Government amongst

persons who have special knowledge or practical experience in respect of such
matters as literature, science, art and social service.
 2 members nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the Central Government to represent the
Anglo-Indian community
 1 member nominated to the State Legislative Assembly by the State Government in
case it feels that the community is underrepresented. Every State is empowered to
make this nomination.
Out of the Indian Parliament (both houses) and the State Legislative Assemblies, only the
elected members are eligible to participate as electors in the Presidential Election. The
nominated members are, correspondingly, ineligible. Additionally, members of the Vidhan
Parishad (in states which have one) are not eligible to be part of the electoral college.

Are legislators from Union Territories eligible to be part of the electoral college?
As a result of the 70th Amendment Act to the Indian Constitution, elected Legislative
Assembly members of the Union Territories of Delhi and Puducherry are also to be included
in the electoral college. The other UTs do not have a Legislative Assembly.

Voting Shares of the Electoral College

Not only is the election of the President conducted through an electoral college, but it also
doesn’t follow the concept of “one man, one vote.” Given the fact that the election is an
indirect one, and geared to represent the choice of the country as a whole, the Constitution
prescribes a specific formula to calculate the value of the vote cast by every elector.

Given that the national parliament as well as the state legislatures participate in this electoral
process, the formula calculating the weightage of votes is based on two fundamental
principles:

Uniformity
The formula aims to secure uniformity in the scale of representation of all the different States
in the country, to emphasize the equivalent status of all States despite the differences in their
size, population, or other characteristics.

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Parity
The formula tries to secure parity between all the States as a whole and the Union in order
to uphold the idea of a federal government structure.

The formula provides for different methods of computing the vote weightage for MPs and
MLAs.

Calculation of the vote share of an MLA

The formula for calculating the vote share of an MLA can be represented as follows:

Calculation Note:
Calculations that end in fractions exceeding 1/2 will be rounded up to the nearest whole
number, whereas fractions of less than 1/2 will be rounded down.

The way this formula operates can be better illustrated through the following hypothetical
example of the State of Andhra Pradesh:

Step 1: -

Multiply the total number of elected MLAs with 1000:

294×1000 = 2,94,000
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Step 2: -

Divide the State population by the result of Step 1:

4,35,02,708/2,94,000 = 147.968

Step 3: -

Given the fact that the result of step 2 is a decimal number, and the decimal part is a fraction
greater than 1/2 (or, in other words, more than .5), the number will be rounded up to the
nearest whole number, giving us the value of 148.

Important Note: Originally, the Constitution intended the population figures to be

continuously updated to reflect the results of the immediate preceding census. However, in
order to promote family planning measures throughout the country, the Parliament passed
the 42nd Amendment Act which was later updated by the 84th Amendment Act. According
to the 84th Amendment, the census figures of 1971 are to be taken as the population of each
state, and these figures will be in operation until the first census after the year 2026 is
conducted. In other words, the 1971 population figures will be fixed until the 2031 census,
and the 2032 Presidential election will be the first Presidential election to use updated
population figures.

Calculation of the vote share of an MP

The formula for calculating the vote share of an MP can be represented as follows:

It can be deduced from this formula that the value of an MP’s vote is directly dependent on
the vote value of all MLAs. The following steps will be required in order to get the final value:

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Step 1: -
Calculate the value of the votes of all MLAs from every state in accordance with the formula
prescribed in the section above and then find the grand total of these values

For instance, if the value of the vote of an MLA from Andhra Pradesh is 148 and there are
294 elected MLAs, then the total vote share of Andhra Pradesh will be 148×294 = 43,512

Repeat this process for each state and then add up all the total vote shares of each state to
find the sum of vote value of elected members of all the Legislative Assemblies.

Step 2: -

Divide the grand total value found in Step 1 with the total number of elected members in
both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha (543+233 = 776). The resulting number will be value of
the vote held by every MP.

As can be seen from everything detailed above, the “voting power” of each elector varies
depending on whether they belong to the Union or the State legislature, or which State they
belong to in the latter case.

What if a State’s Legislative Assembly has been dissolved?

It must be remembered that the calculation of vote shares will be dependent on the number
of State Legislative Assemblies which are in existence at that point of time. Therefore, if
President’s Rule under Article 356 of the Constitution has been imposed on a State and it
hasn’t been re-constituted in time for the President’s election, the election will go on
regardless. The legislators who were in power prior to the dissolution of the Assembly will
not be eligible to qualify as electors, and the MP vote shares will be calculated without
factoring in their vote values. However, it is the moral responsibility of the Election
Commission to schedule elections in such a manner that they may be as representative of the
nation’s will as possible.

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Conduct of Election
Preliminary Activities
The Election Commission shall publish a notice informing the public about its plans to
conduct the Presidential Election at the specified dates and venues. Prospective candidates
can begin planning their election game-plan following this notice.

In order to secure one’s Presidential candidature and contest the elections, the interested
individual has to complete a few specific procedural tasks, aside from filling out the requisite
paperwork and declarations:

Securing nominations
To be eligible for the electoral process, a candidate must get his nomination papers signed
by 50 electors as proposers as well as 50 electors as seconders.

Paying the Security Deposit

A prospective candidate is also required to submit a security deposit of Rs. 15,000 along
with his nomination papers. This deposit will normally be refunded to him, unless he loses
and the number of votes he got is less than 1/6th of the amount he would have needed in
order to win the election. The amount of votes he would’ve needed in order to win is, of
course, a variable number and depends upon the number of candidates contesting the
elections and the number of electors present.

System of Election
The election of the President of India is achieved through the system of proportional
representation by single transferable vote.

The way this works can be illustrated in the following way:

 Suppose there are five candidates in a particular election.

 All members of the Electoral College will be required to mark their preferences
on their ballots. In other words, they will have to rank all five candidates from
1st to 5th.
 After everyone has cast their vote, the counting process takes place.

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 In order to be declared the winner, a candidate is required to get the
prescribed quota of votes. The winning quota is determined by the following
formula:
 Winning quota = 50% of all valid votes polled +1

The value of votes a contesting candidate gets in the first round is determined in the
following way:

Number of ballots on which candidate is first preference X Value of vote which each ballot
paper of a member (MP or MLA) represents.

If the election took place under the rules of the first-past-the-post system, then figuring out
the winning candidate would have been quite straightforward – the candidate with the most
number of votes, no matter by how small a margin, would be elected President. However,
under the proportional representation by single transferable vote system, it is not
necessary that the election will be completed in a single round.

In fact, there are a number of different ways the electoral process could pan out, depending
on the total value of votes each candidate obtains in the first round.

To understand this process better, assume that the total value of all votes in an electoral
college is 200.

Scenario A
FIRST ROUND OF COUNTING

Candidate Valid Votes Polled

A 15
B 103
C 25
D 36
E 21
Total 200

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Keeping in mind the formula for the winning quota, a candidate needs to obtain at least 101
votes ([50% of 200] +1) in order to be declared the winner.

If the breakup of the votes polled ends up the way described above, then Candidate B will
be declared the winner.

Scenario B
However, what if after the first round of counting, no clear winner emerges?

FIRST ROUND OF COUNTING

Candidate Valid Votes Polled

A 30
B 60
C 40
D 23
E 47
Total 200

Given that nobody managed to reach the necessary quota of 101 votes, there will be a need
to rely on subsequent rounds of counting.

The returning officer will exclude the candidate with the lowest number of first preference
votes, which in this case is Candidate D. The 23 votes obtained by candidate D will be
distributed amongst the remaining candidates.

This is where the preferences of each elector become relevant. Those 23 votes which
originally belonged to D will be distributed among the remaining candidates keeping in mind
the second preference of each elector.

For instance, out of the 23 votes that D obtained:

 12 had B as the second preference

 5 had E as second preference
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 5 had C as second preference
 1 had A as second preference
These three candidates will receive these votes at the same value that C originally got them.
The resulting vote shares of the remaining candidates would look like this:

SECOND ROUND OF COUNTING

Candidate Valid Votes Polled

A 31 (30+1)
B 72 (60+12)
C 45 (40+5)
D 0
E 52 (47+5)
Total 200

As can be observed here, even after distributing the vote shares of the eliminated candidate,
none of the remaining candidates have managed to reach the winning quota. Therefore, the
process of elimination will have to be undertaken once again.

Now it can be seen that Candidate A has the lowest tallied votes. As a result, the number of
votes he has gotten will be distributed among the remaining candidates.

Important note:
It must be remembered that in the first round of distribution, one of Candidate D’s original
vote shares had labelled Candidate A as the second preference. Therefore, when distributing
that particular vote share, the returning officer will look at the third preference. The rest of
the votes being distributed have A marked as the first preference, therefore the returning
officer will look at the second preference marked and allots them accordingly (except for
cases where the second preference is a candidate who has already been eliminated, in which
case the returning officer will look at the third preference).

Out of A’s eliminated 31 votes, the returning officer finds that:

 27 of A’s original votes have marked Candidate B as the second preference

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 One of Candidate D’s original votes – which had been assigned to A after D was
eliminated – has marked candidate B as the third preference
 Two of A’s original votes have marked Candidate E as the second preference.
 One of A’s original votes has marked Candidate D as the second preference. However,
since D was eliminated after the first round, the returning officer looks at the third
preference for that particular vote, which has been assigned to B.
 After factoring in all this information, the returning officer will begin the third round
of counting, the results of which will be as follows:

THIRD ROUND OF COUNTING

Candidate Valid Votes Polled

A 0
B 101 (72+29)
C 45
D 0
E 54 (52+2)
Total 200

Given that Candidate B has attained the winning quota after the third round of counting, he
shall be declared the winner of the Presidential Election.

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