Election Procedure of President

According to the constitution of India (Article 52), a President of India should always be there in the country. He is the first citizen of India and holds the position of the head of Indian states. An Electoral College elects the president of India. The electoral members of both the Legislative Assemblies of all the States and the house of parliaments make the Electoral College. This election procedure is not as simple as the election procedure of the Prime Minister and the Chief Ministers of India. This article is here to give a brief knowledge about the procedure of electing the President of India.

Compositions and Importance of Electoral College

The Electoral College is composed of the members of the parliament and the members of the Legislative assemblies. It is the process of electing the President of India. This process consists of the following steps:

• The selection of the electors
• The meeting of the electors to vote 
• The counting of electoral votes

There are 538 electors in the Electoral College and a majority of votes are required to be elected as the president of India (at least 270 votes are required). Candidates, who are running for the next president of India, have their own groups of electors known as a slate. The candidate’s political party of the state selects the electors for the candidate under the state laws. Then the electors meet at the chosen place for voting and vote for a candidate of their choice.

Description of Single Transferable Vote System

By the Single Transferable Vote System, the strengths of all parties match their support in the representatives and the country. Bigger areas elect a team of representatives of political parties’ consisting of 4 or 5 members. The voters give their choices of their favourite candidates by giving a list of candidates sorted by their first, 2nd favourite, and so on. The difference between the Single Transferable Vote System and the regular preferential vote system is the number of vacancies. The Single Transferable Vote System is used to tally the votes where the basic preferential vote has only one vacancy. In the basic preferential vote system, voters vote only for one candidate but in STV, voters give a ranking of their favourite candidates. The surplus votes are transferred depending on the ranking assigned to the candidates at the time of voting to ensure that all the vacancies are filled. It is done according to Meek’s STV method by the election authority.

Vote Counting Procedure

A candidate needs a majority of votes called the quota to be elected as the President of India. Therefore, the counting of votes is worked out by the people counting the votes based on the numbers of votes cast and the vacancies. The outcome is processed by redistributing the votes and by eliminating the low-ranked candidates in each round. The quota of votes required must be achieved by the candidate to win or they are eliminated at the time of counting of votes. The quota is generated by dividing the total submitted votes in an election by the available vacancies for the position plus one and adding a fractional number with the quotient. In the first round, the first preference of the ranking ballot of each voter is counted as one vote for that candidate. The candidate who has the least required numbers according to the quota is automatically considered the winner. If no candidate surpasses the quota, the candidates with the least votes will be eliminated and their votes will be transferred to other parties. The transfer of votes depends on the second favourite list of the ballot of the voters. Then, again, the candidate with the lowest count of votes will be eliminated and his vote will be transferred to another party.

Conclusion

The President of India is not selected in the typical and simple form of voting in Lok Sabha. This process is called the Electoral College and is regulated by the members of the parliament and the Legislative assemblies of the state. In the Electoral College, candidates are selected for being elected to be the President of India and are voted by the voters in a ranking ballot list of their favourite candidates. The counting of votes is regulated by the STV system and the winning candidate is selected by the elimination of the lowest voted candidate and the vote transfer process.