Apropos of presidential elections: a daughters queries to her father

  Rumki:- Papa; how is the President of India elected? I find both print and electronic media discussing this election quite often these days.

 Father:- Well its nice to learn that news relating to such topics attracts your attention while being a student of class eight. But before I try to explain the matter I have reason to suppose that you are acquainted with our Constitution as also the Legislative Assemblies of the states and parliament of India.

  Rumki:- we have studied in our previous class about state legislatures and parliament. It is known to me that state legislature is consisted of Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council while some states may not have the latter and also our parliament has two houses namely, the House of People and the Council of states called lower house and upper house respectively.

  Father:- You know the President is the first citizen of our republic. Our Constitution says that President will be elected by members of an electoral college. This electoral college consists of elected members of the House of People, the Council of states and Legislative Assemblies of states including the NCT of Delhi and the union territory of Puduchery.

  Rumki:- you mean only elected members of these houses have right to participate in presidential election ?

  Father:- Of course, nominated members of these houses do not take part in Presidents election as you see that they are not members of the electoral college that I mentioned earlier. You can see also the members of the legislative Councils of the states not being members of the electoral college are, therefore, also not allowed to vote in the Presidential election. Moreover, the election is carried out by a system of proportional Representation by means of single transferable vote.

  Rumki:- what is this Proportional Representation by single Transferable vote? Please elaborate.

  Father:- The value of vote as cast by a member of the electoral college is not unity which is in the case of parliamentary or assembly elections where the vote count of an elector is taken as one. In case the elector is a member of the legislative assembly, the value of the vote of an elector in Presidents election is determined according to the population of the particular state of whose legislative assembly the concerned elector belongs to and also the total number of the elected members in that states legislative assembly. In fact, this value is worked out by dividing the population of the concerned state by the total number of elected members in that states legislative assembly. The quotient thus obtained is further divided by 1000.If the remainder is equal to or above 500, the value of the vote is added by one.

  The above proposition can also be mathematically represented as 

          Value of vote of an elector belonging to the legislative assembly of a state A=population of the state A/(total number of elected members in that state assembly x 1000).

  If the remainder of this divisive exercise is 500 or more one extra is added to the value of vote of each elector related to that states legislative assembly.

  Accordingly, the cumulative value of votes of electors of all state legislative assemblies is arrived at. This figure is divided by the combined total number of the elected members of both the houses of parliament to determine the value of the vote of each MP of parliament. Thus each member of parliament has the same value of vote, whereas MLAs each state in the electoral college has different values of vote as determined by the population and elected members' strength of the legislative assembly of that state.   

  Now I presume that you can guess what proportional representation stands to mean i.e. the value of vote is in proportion to the population of a state and hence the elector in the electoral college with respect to his legislative assembly is represented according to population of that state. That is why it is called proportional representation. I should also tell you it is not the present population of the states that is used for the purpose of calculations but that of census 1971 so long as the final figures of the first census carried out after 2026 is published as per the provisions incorporated in our Constitution through an amendment in it in the year 2000. 

  Rumki:- you have not explained single transferable vote as yet.

  Father:- In this election the elector has to indicate his preferences in order of priorities by marking numerals 1,2,3 etc against the names of the candidates on the ballot paper for indicating his/her choices in order of preferences. You should remember that in general elections a voter has simply to stamp or push a button against the candidate of his choice i.e. one can not simultaneously vote for two contestants but for the rejection of one's vote. This is evidently not the case in presidential election. In this case the first preference marked ballots otherwise not liable to be rejected are counted and number of valid votes is calculated. Accordingly, quota which is 50% of valid votes plus one is ascertained for the purpose of winning the election by a candidate contesting election. If in the first round of counting itself, a candidate obtains this quota of valid votes by way of having ballots marked as first preference in his favour he/she is declared elected and no further round of counting is resorted to.

  Rumki:- What if no candidate is able to achieve this quota in the first round of counting?

  Father:- In that situation second round of counting has to be done. But before that the candidate securing least number of ballots marked as preference 1 in his favour is eliminated and all such ballots indicating preference 2 also in favour of other contesting candidates is allotted accordingly to these candidates and for the purpose of counting in the second round these ballots are treated as marked 1 preference ballots in favour of these such candidates and thereafter it is ascertained whether the winning quota has been secured by any candidate remained after first round of counting. This process of elimination of candidates having least votes is repeated and their ballots is transferred in the next round among the remaining ones according to the next preference as marked in ballot papers of the eliminated candidate till a candidate secures this winning quota in the instant or consequent round.  

  Rumki :- It is quite likely that even upon successive rounds only two candidates remain in the fray and neither achieving this elusive winning quota?

  Father :- well in that case this winning quota requirement is forgone and the candidate having votes more than his counterpart is declared elected.

  Rumki :- who declares that the candidate is elected?

  Father:- The Election Commission of India appoints a Returning Officer who declares that a candidate has been elected. The Secretary General Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha is appointed as Returning Officer alternatively by the commission. 

  Rumki:- It appears to me from what you have explained that Electronic voting machines can't be used in this election for understandable reasons.

Father: you are correct. Since this system is based upon single transferable voting system, EVMs are not equipped to cater to this requirement and hence voting is through secret ballot paper. It is interesting to learn that the colours of ballot papers issued to the members of this electoral college are green for MPs and pink for MLAs.

  Rumki:- So far I have understood the process underlying the election; but tell me can any one contest this election or is there any qualification for the same?

  Father:- Oh! I had the impression that you knew this. Anyway, our constitution says that for being eligible to contest in Presidents election one must be an Indian citizen having completed 35 years of age and also that he/she is eligible for being elected for the House of People and at the same time does not hold an office of profit. I should further add that for the purpose of this election holding constitutional posts like President, Vice-President, Governor, or a Minister in the union or the state Governments is not considered as holding an office of profit.

                Holding these qualifications, a person can file his/her nomination paper either by oneself or ones proposer/seconder with a security deposit of Rs. 15000 and a certified copy of parliamentary election voter list bearing entry of ones name in such list before the Returning Officer during the period and time as stipulated in the notification issued for such purpose by the Election Commission of India. In order that the nomination paper filed is valid, it must be subscribed by at least 50 members of proposers and an equal number of seconders; all belonging to the electoral college.

  Rumki:- Is it that only male citizen can contest this election? Raghaw, a friend of mine was teasing me that since Article 58 the constitution reads as No person shall be eligible for election as a President unless he ......... and its clause (2) also reads as A person shall not be eligible for election as President if he holds ........ only male citizens are eligible for election as President.

  Father:- What an observation! Did not you tell him that his understanding was not supported by reason and it was just his hair-splitting approach to read Constitution. However, he may be correct if he is pointing to the necessity of making this great document of India a gender-neutral one.

                                                                              By- Rajeev Ranjan Prabhakar

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